Homura Akemi: Test Subject One
by PK.Atomyst
Summary: It was a perfect ending. The town had been evacuated before Walpurgis Night, all her friends were saved, and she successfully kept Madoka from making a contract. However, the Japanese government took a particular interest in the girl who predicated a disaster the worlds top scientists were clueless of. Now, Homura finds herself locked in a research laboratory as Test Subject One.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 _"Send in test subject one."_ Came the apathetic voice from over the intercom.

Homura, dressed in nothing but a white hospital gown, was led forward by two armed guards. She maintained her stationary upright posture as she walked, although her dark eyes darted all around. White walls, metal doors, and two-way mirrors. That is all her life had been for the last two weeks since she was first taken here.

The tiled floor felt cold against her bare feet. The fluorescent lighting annoyed her. It was too bright, and it let out a constant low buzzing sound. If she did not think about the buzzing she could not hear it, but when she _did_ think about it, it was _all_ she could hear. If she didn't know any better, she would think they had chosen that specific lighting just as another way to get into her head.

She, and the two armed guards who escorted her, stopped at a metal door. A camera stationed just above the door rotated and looked at them, the guard to her left put up a hand and waved. There were beeping sounds coming from somewhere inside the door, and it slid open with a hiss.

This door, just like all the others she had seen so far, was nearly a foot thick and seemed to be solid metal all the way through. She had some pipe bombs stored inside her shield space, but she doubted they would do any good. She had another type of bomb stored there that she knew for a fact would blow right through (plus a lot more), but it was still too early to take that drastic of a measure. For now, she had to just play it safe and let her enemy know as little about her as possible, all the while learning as much about _them_ as she could. When the time was right, she would make her break and get out of here. She grinned; they had no idea who they were messing with.

The metal door led to a small room. Inside, there was not much to see. There was a mirror on the front wall, which she guessed would have a group of scientists sitting behind it. There was a table with small building blocks lying on top of it. On the floor there were two Xs - one made with red tape, the other made with blue. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all white, and there was that annoying buzzing of fluorescent light, just like everywhere else in this hellhole.

The guards stationed themselves on either side of the door. It beeped, hissed and it slid shut again. Homura stood, a few paces ahead of them, and looked around.

That same monotone voice came over the intercom, _"Test Subject One: Homura Akemi, age fifteen."_ Then a pause, and _"How are you doing today, Homura?"_ Homura was not exactly in the mood for pleasantries, so she didn't bother with a response. She just flung her hair back and looked over to the two way mirror with dark menacing eyes.

 _"If you would, please step over to the red X and stand facing the mirror."_ There was not much point in resisting this simple request, so she obeyed. This wasn't the first time they had brought her to a room like this, and the sooner she finished whatever ridiculous tasks they had in store for her, the sooner she would be able to go back to her room.

 _"Good. Now if you could, please transform your clothing."_ She stood there, in the white hospital gown, and just stared.

After a full minute of waiting the voice asked: _"Is everything alright, Homura?"_ There actually was a reason why she would rather not transform. She didn't know how many people were sitting behind that glass, and for a few seconds within the transformation sequence she would be standing there stark naked. Well, not actually naked; for the most part she would be covered by that rainbow light, but it outlined her nude body perfectly enough that it did not leave much to the imagination.

How was she supposed to explain that, though? Well, she had already been here for two weeks, and if she knew anything about her enemy it was that they were persistent. She could go on standing there on that X and doing nothing for another five hours if she wanted, that stupid voice over the intercom would just keep asking over and over again until she finally obeyed. So, she felt for her power, and let herself transform. She did it with pride, she decided she would not huddle her arms over her chest and turn away like an embarrassed school girl. She was a Magical Girl, and this power meant she was something greater than an ordinary human, and that is how she would carry herself.

She put a hand over the center of her chest, where she kept her Soul Gem hidden, and suddenly her hair and the hospital gown started blowing as if there was some powerful source of wind in the room. The sleeves and hem of the gown tore away, dissipating and separating into the air until it was all gone and her entire body was nude and covered with light.

She stretched her arms out, and leaned backwards as her feet lifted off the ground. She floated a few inches in the air, her eyes closed and her hair blowing wildly. Black ribbons appeared and circled around her limbs and body, and pulled tight. With another burst of light the ribbons expanded and changed form. From her forearms, to her shoulders, to her body, to her legs, her Magical Girl uniform appeared.

When it was all over, her feet landed back on the ground softly. She was now wearing high-heeled shoes, black leggings, and a dress of purple and white. She opened her eyes, and continued staring at the mirror with her dark and heavy expression. _There, you bastards. Did you enjoy the show?_ She could imagine them all sitting back there, with their notebooks, whispering back and forth about what they had just seen. She could only imagine how they would react if she showed them a true display of her power. No doubt the transformation alone was quite impressive for someone who had never seen magic before, but that was the lowest of the low. She wanted to keep a good portion of her power hidden from them, however.

 _"Thank you Homura, that's, quite impressive,"_ said the voice. _"Now, can you display your teleportation skill for us? If you would, please teleport over to the blue X."_

The gears on her shield arm turned, and time stopped. She walked over to the blue X as she was asked, faced the mirror once again and resumed time. To the viewers it would have looked like she disappeared from the red X and reappeared on the blue X instantly. She thought it was funny that they thought she could teleport, although part of her figured that by now they had at least some inkling of the fact she was stopping time.

 _"Excellent!"_ said the voice, _"Thank you for being so cooperative today, Homura. We have just one more test and then you can go back to your room. See the blocks sitting on that table over there? We would like you to rearrange the blocks, instantly, like we have seen you do before. If you could build a small tower with them or something like that, that would be best. Go on, give us a real display of your power."_

 _A real display?_ She grinned, playing with blocks was not exactly a _'real display'_ of her power. She spoke out loud. "You want a real display of my power, huh?" Her dark eyes traced the two-way mirror back and forth. "Fine, you got it." She stopped time and walked over to the blocks. She smacked her hand across them, sending them flying, until they froze in mid-air. Then she walked over to the two guards who were standing by the door. "Sorry about this," she said to them, although she knew they could not hear her. She yanked the assault rifle out of one's hands and pointed it at his leg. She fire one bullet, which froze just as its tip made it to the surface of his skin. She turned the gun on the other guard and did the same thing.

Then she walked to the center of the room and pointed the gun at the wall opposite of the mirror. She carefully fired in quick bursts. She was spelling something out with the bullets, which froze just before hitting the wall. Having run out of ammo on the last word, she started taking the gun apart. She removed the clip, the slider, unscrewed the barrel, removed the handle and the firing pins. She laid all these parts neatly on the table where the blocks had once sat. Then she walked to the other guard and grabbed his gun from him.

She finished the last couple of letters on her little message, and walked back to the blue X. She stood there and pointed the rifle at the mirror. The true reason she did all this was partially to make a point, but that was only a very small part of it. The truth is she was hiding her true intentions by making her actions seem like those of a tantruming teenage girl. Her actual intention was to learn more about her enemy.

She wanted to know if the glass could be broken. It could be bullet-proof, but maybe it was not. If it wasn't, she wanted to see who was sitting behind it. How many of them were there? Were they old? Young? Were all of them scientists? Were some of them military? Also, was there a door on the other side of the glass she could get through without the use of a bomb? These were all things worth knowing, and she was not giving any information away about herself by doing this. She knew they had already gotten a good display of her power before even capturing her, so even with all of this she was only showing them things they already knew.

She held the rifle firmly, and resumed time.

Instantly, there were screams from the guards as they fell to the ground. There was a series of quick crashes as the bullets hit the wall and blew away parts of the concrete, spelling three words: _**"GO TO HELL" .**_ The blocks fell to the ground and spun around amongst themselves before coming to a stop.

One of the guards screamed: "Sh-shit! Let me out of here!" as he clawed at the door.

Homura focused down the sight of her rifle, looking at herself in the mirror. She couldn't help but have a wide sardonic grin spread across her entire face.

 _"Homura. Release the weapon immediately, and calm down,"_ said the voice over the intercom. _"We'll forgive this outburst if you stop right now."_

"You'll forgive me?" she said loudly, and steadied the gun. "I think you're the ones who need to start begging for forgiveness!"

She pulled the trigger and opened fire, spraying the bullets back and forth across the mirror. Each bullet cracked it with small spider webs of damage, but for the most part it held strong. She continued shooting anyway, thinking maybe enough fire would eventually blow it off, and she could get a good look at her enemy.

That did not happen, but a bullet must have ricocheted and hit one of the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, because the room started flickering. Black and white and black and white. With each flicker, Homura could see them. Although she only saw them as silhouettes through the cracked glass, it was enough to see them scurrying around in a panic. She felt satisfied. When the room flashed white, she could see herself in the cracked mirror, blood dripping from her forehead and running over her face, her eyes narrow, and her lips smiling.

Then, she felt that something hit her back and dug in, and she suddenly lost control of her body. She spun in an arc as she hit the ground, the assault rifle letting off its last rounds in a circle around the room as she fell. She lied on the ground, her body convulsing. It was one of the worst pains she had ever felt in her life. She could barely move a single finger, but somehow she managed to get her head up just enough to see two wires going from her back and leading to a small gun held in one of the guards' hands. _A taser._

Her body gave off one more burst of distressed motion before falling limp, and she passed out. Her Magical Girl uniform disappeared, and she was once again wearing nothing but a white hospital gown.

* * *

The room they had her staying in was not terribly uncomfortable. It was big, to say the least. It was like having her own personal apartment. There was a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a living room. The living room came complete with a widescreen TV and a plethora of video games and movies to choose from. The fridge was pretty well-stocked, and she was told if there was anything else she wanted all she had to do was ask.

She had taken up drawing, as another way to pass the time. TV and video games could only keep her engaged for so long. Her art wasn't nearly as good as Madoka's, but looking back through the notebook she found that there was some obvious improvements from her first drawing to her last. Thinking about Madoka made her put her pen down, and lean back as she reminisced.

It wasn't fair. She had finally achieved an ending she was happy with, and still she did not get to be with Madoka. She knew poor Madoka was probably extremely worried about her right now. She did not even know if any of her friends knew what had happened to her. To them, it probably seemed like she had just disappeared without saying a single word to anyone. Or maybe they thought a witch had gotten her? Whatever the case, she hoped Madoka wouldn't be foolish enough to make a contract and wish for her safety. She didn't think she would, as she had done a good enough job explaining to Madoka why she could not become a Magical Girl under any circumstances, and she thought Madoka would listen.

If it did happen, and Madoka did become a Magical Girl, Homura supposed she could just rewind time again. Yes, that option would always be there, and if things got bad enough it would be worth considering. She didn't want to, though. After hundreds upon hundreds of failures she had finally gotten a satisfactory ending, and she would not throw it away unless absolutely necessary.

She could not remember much after her outburst in the test room. She remembered the taser, and then staring at the ceiling as it flickered black and white with her vision fading. She vaguely recalled being put onto a stretcher and carried through the hallway. She had woken up, and turned her head to one of the doctors who were carrying her. Then she felt a sharp pain at the side of her neck and everything went black again. When she woke up, she was lying on the bed they had provided her with in her 'apartment', and according to the clock several hours had passed.

She finished up her drawing and held it out. It was just a simple picture of a cat. She thought the tail looked a little bit distorted, and its paws were not quite right, but its face and body seemed spot-on. She wrote the word 'Amy' above the cat, in pretty cursive writing, and closed the notebook.

She got up from the kitchen table, and walked back over to the living room. She sat down on the couch and picked up the remote. She pointed it at the TV, and pressed the power button, but nothing happened. She pressed it again and again and thought _'What the hell?'._ She stood up and tried to turn the TV on manually, but that did not work either.

 _'Oh... I get it.'_ she thought. She threw the remote down and walked to the giant metal door at the front of her little apartment. She looked up at the camera that was stationed there and yelled, "Hey! What the hell's wrong with the TV?" She stood there staring at the camera for a while without getting a response. "I know you can hear me!" After another minute of waiting, her eyes narrowed and she flung her hair back as she turned away. She grabbed a chair from the kitchen and brought it back to the camera holding it up high, posed to strike. She knew from experience that they _really_ did not like it when she broke their cameras. "Going to talk now?" she asked one more time.

Then the intercom clicked on. It was not the same voice that she usually talked to. She supposed that the guy, whoever he was, was already off for the day. _"It was decided that there needed to be some kind of punishment for your outburst in the test room today."_ Homura's eyes narrowed as she tensed her hands around the chair legs. _"If there are no more issues with you over the next few days, your television privileges will be restored to you. That includes not breaking any of our equipment, Mrs. Akemi."_ This guy at least had a little more personality in his voice then the usual guy. Homura scowled, and lowered the chair. Instead of striking the camera, she just threw it against a wall. Then she went back to the living room and sat down on the couch with folded arms and an angry look on her face.

* * *

She had been here for just over two weeks now, and she was starting to go a tad stir crazy. Not having the TV made things a little worse, but whether or not she had television and games to play made little difference in her overall satisfaction of the situation she was in. She cursed herself for allowing this to happen.

After Walpurgis Night they had apparently been stalking her for quite a while. Luckily, she didn't team up with the other girls in that time, so their identities were not revealed as well. Still, she cursed herself for not noticing anything sooner. The thing is, she had never had to worry about something like that before. Of course, making a public display of her power by predicating the future and warning people about the upcoming disaster gave her a lot of attention. She should have known something like this might happen, and she should have prepared for it. Alas, she did not, and now that she was here she had to make the best of her situation and figure a way out of it.

She sat at the kitchen table, doing a puzzle. It was a one-thousand-piece puzzle, and she had been working on it for just over two hours now. She was only about half way done, but of course the second half of a puzzle was always the easiest. She joined a large section she had been working on to its place on the main piece when the intercom buzzed on.

 _"Homura,"_ it said; it was the same monotone guy she was used to hearing. She decided to start referring to him as _Dr. Mono_.

"What do you want?"

 _"We have made a slight alteration to your schedule tonight. There is a psychologist coming into your room to meet with you. She should be there in about an hour. If you are cooperative and don't cause any trouble for her, we will return your TV privileges a day early."_

Homura raised an eyebrow "Psychologist? Why are you even bothering with something like that?"

 _"We are trying to avoid another situation like what happened in the test room yesterday. Also, just for your information, the testing session we had planned for tomorrow has been postponed until we come up with more secure arrangements to test you under."_

"Whatever," she said. "Is that all?" Dr. Mono did not bother saying anything else to her.

She went back to her bedroom and picked out some different clothes to wear. Right now she was just wearing sweatpants and a loose black shirt. She took the clothes to the bathroom, which is the only room that did not have a camera in it (at least one that could be seen), and she got changed. As long as she was stuck here, she figured there was no reason not to try and keep her appearance up, and at least maintain some of her dignity. When she was done changing, she made some tea for herself back in the kitchen and resumed working on her puzzle while she waited for this psychologist to show up.

She was well over a third of the way done when the intercom buzzed on again. _"Homura,"_ said Dr. Mono _"Dr. Sakura will be coming in now."_

 _Sakura?_ What a coincidence, Homura thought. Wasn't that also Kyoko's family name? Well, it was a common enough name, she supposed. She just hummed and continued working on her puzzle. She decided she would just give this psychologist the silent treatment. She hoped she would not stay for too long.

The front door beeped and hissed open. On Homura's first day here she had stopped time when that door opened, and tried to slip out. It seemed her enemy was smart enough to plan for that, though, because behind that door was just another identical steel door. Those two doors would never be opened at the same time, so it was impossible to slip out that way. Even if she did manage to get through the second door, just about every door in the hall that followed was the same, so escape was basically impossible.

Dr. Sakura came in, wearing a white overcoat and a notebook held in her arm, against her chest. She wore glasses and had her long red hair tied back in a pony tail. Funny, Homura thought, besides having the same family name as Kyoko she actually looked quite similar to her as well, almost as if she could be an older sister. Homura knew that was not that case, Kyoko only had a younger sister who had passed away. Perhaps a distant cousin? It was certainly possible.

"Hello," said Dr. Sakura. She stood a few feet back from Homura who was just staring at her. "You must be Homura Akemi. I'm so glad to get to meet you. May I take a seat?" Homura nodded.

Dr. Sakura sat down across from her and set down her notebook. "I had been trying to convince them to allow me to talk to you for a while now. I finally got them to agree after the incident that happened the other day. I suppose I should thank you for that." She smiled.

Homura raised an eyebrow. There was something strange going on here. It was something in the doctor's voice. "I'm Dr. Sakura. I hope we can be friends. Actually, if you like you can just call me by my personal name, Kay."

 _Kay?_ That name alone could also have been another coincidence, but the sudden grin that came over _Dr. "K" Sakura's_ face said it all. Homura's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

"Kay? K-Kyoko?"

Kyoko's eyes narrowed. "Now what could that mean?" It was clear she was actually trying to say _"Don't blow my cover! You idiot!"_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Are you and Homura fighting right now?" Junko Kaname asked her daughter, after spitting toothpaste into the sink. "She hasn't been over in a while."

"No," Madoka said, still brushing her own teeth. She held her hair back with one hand as she spat into the sink as well. "She's... She's just away right now." Junko looked down at her daughter, feeling as though there is something she was not saying. Normally she always knew exactly what was on her daughter's mind. Lately however, Madoka had seemed like much more of a closed book. "She'll be back soon." Madoka said, with a smile.

Junko had first noticed Madoka becoming distant a couple of months ago when Sayaka was having a fight with their friend Hitomi over a boy. She was not sure why something like that would cause Madoka to act so strangely, but it turned out that did not actually have anything to do with it after all. It was several weeks later, when Junko had met Homura for the first time, that it all started to make sense.

Madoka brought Homura home one day, and they stood hand-in-hand as Madoka announced that this was her girlfriend. Junko was taken aback at first, having not realized this about her own daughter until then. She supposed having a tomboy friend like Sayaka growing up may have had something to do with it. She didn't have a problem with it of course; she was happy her daughter had found someone, boy or girl. All the same, Madoka's revelation had come as a bit of a surprise to her.

Her husband had offered for Homura to stay for dinner straight away, which Homura accepted, with a bit of an awkward blush creeping onto her face. Junko, after gaining her composure, went right to fawning over how cute she was, which deepened her blush even further. Madoka laughed, and so did Homura - a bit shyly - and she instantly became a part of the family.

Junko found that she really liked Homura. She seemed like a strong and caring person, and she was always very polite. She was a bit shy and withdrawn, it seemed, but Madoka appeared to smooth that side of her over a bit. She thought the two of them really were great together. However, soon after the disaster that had the whole town evacuated, Homura abruptly stopped coming over. It didn't make sense for such a sudden change so Junko asked again "Are you sure everything's alright? You know you can tell me about anything, right?"

"Yes, really," Madoka assured her, "Everything's great! She'll be back soon, I just miss her a little bit is all." She smiled again, and Junko guessed that her daughter was being honest after all. Sure, she was not as communicative as she use to be, but Junko thought back to when she was in that age herself, and realized it was natural for teenage girls not to be so open with their parents. Especially once they have started dating.

Breakfast went normally enough, and when they were all done Madoka announced that she was going over to Mami's house to do some studying with her and Sayaka. "Okay," Junko said, "Just make sure you call if you're going to be late coming home."

"I will, mom. Bye!"

Madoka decided to take the city bus in order to get there sooner. Normally she would be just fine with the walk, since it was such a nice day, but she was anxious to hear about how things had gone last night. Kyoko had infiltrated the laboratory, but Madoka had to go home before hearing the results of the mission. Madoka had been very worried about Homura these last two weeks, but Mami assured her that in the end everything would be fine.

 _"Yeah,"_ Sayaka had chimed in, _"With four Magical Girls on the job, those suckers don't stand a chance! In fact, there's five of us if you count Homura herself. They really picked the wrong people to try and mess with, you know?"_

Still, Madoka could not help but worry. It was a dangerous thing they were all involved in, especially Kyoko. If something had gone wrong Kyoko could be locked up right along with Homura right now. Without her enchantment magic, finding another way into the laboratory would be difficult.

Kyoko had once suggested that they all just storm the building and take Homura back by force, but Mami had flat-out refused this suggestion. She said as an absolute last resort they could start to think about considering that, but it was not something they should do unless there was no other choice.

Madoka tried to stay positive, and just have faith in her friends. Things would be okay. She knew they would all come through in the end.

She made it to Mami's apartment and let herself in. She knew she was already expected, so there was no need to knock. When she entered, she looked around. Neither Mami, Sayaka, nor Kyoko were anywhere to be seen. Leiko, however, sat in front of an elaborate computer station she had set up in Mami's living room. She was deeply focused on the screen, clicking and typing away at a rapid pace. She seemed not to notice Madoka's presence at all.

"Um... Good morning Amaya-san," Madoka said to her, not yet feeling close enough to call her by her first name. Leiko still seemed not to have noticed her, so Madoka stepped closer to the white-haired girl and spoke louder "Um, where is everyone?"

Leiko jumped suddenly, startled, and her typing ceased as she looked over to Madoka with an annoyed look on her face. "Kyoko is still in bed. Mami and Sayaka are out on the balcony."

"Kyoko is back? She made it back okay?"

Leiko nodded and pushed up her thickly rimmed glasses that had started to fall off her face. "Indeed. I provided her with a pretty solid identity, so she would have to mess up pretty badly to get caught."

"D-did she get to see Homura?"

Leiko just nodded again in response, and tried to turn back to her computer to end the conversation, but Madoka pushed on.

"Is Homura okay?"

"I guess. Look, I don't know. Ask Kyoko about it when she gets up." And with that she cut Madoka off completely and went back to vigorously plugging away at the giant computer terminal.

It was a relief to hear that things had gone well. Although, she would feel better when she got more details than Leiko's short indignant responses were able to provide. She didn't dislike Leiko, but she seemed like a hard person to get along with. She had this way of always seeming to treat people as if they are beneath her. This had led to some close confrontations with both Kyoko and Sayaka, but Mami and Madoka managed to calm things down before the fighting got too serious. Besides, Leiko had been a huge help to them. If it were not for Leiko's hacking skills they never would have been able to get Kyoko into the laboratory in the first place.

Leiko was a Magical Girl, but she was certainly of a different breed. She admittedly was not much use in fights against witches, as her magic mainly had to do with altering things on the Internet. Madoka honestly did not understand how it worked. She tried to ask Leiko about it before, but the small white-haired girl just looked at her with a bored expression and said: _"I could TRY to explain it to you, but I doubt you would comprehend any of it even if I did."_ Sayaka had overheard this, and walked over to her with a raised fist, but Madoka had quickly gotten between them and guided her away. It seemed Leiko had not even noticed Sayaka doing any of this, for she turned back to her computer without any kind of acknowledgement.

Madoka went to the back of the apartment and stepped out onto the small Balcony. Mami was sitting down at a small table with a cup of tea. Sayaka was leaning her back against the railing and looking out over the cityscape horizon, with a slight wind blowing her short blue hair.

"Oh, good morning Madoka." Mami said to her.

"Hello, how are you?" Madoka smiled.

"Hey, Madoka!" Sayaka waved to her.

"Um, what are the two of you doing out here?"

"Oh man," Sayaka said, "I just finally needed a break from _Miss_ _Congeniality_ in there!" She put her hands around her throat and acted as if she was choking herself.

Mami just smiled "She can be a bit eccentric, it seems."

"She told me Kyoko made it back okay," said Madoka, breaching into the subject.

"Yes, things went better than expected," Mami said, and sipped her tea. "We haven't heard much about it ourselves, yet. Kyoko got in pretty late and went to bed almost instantly. She just put a thumb up and smiled, and went into the bedroom. I imagine using her enchantment magic for long periods of time can really take a toll on her."

"Do you know how Homura is doing?" Madoka asked.

"It seems things are okay with her," Sayaka answered. "Like Mami said, Kyoko didn't tell us much, but I could tell by the look on her face that things are okay."

"Good... I mean, they're not... not... punishing her? For tearing up their test room the other day?"

Sayaka burst out laughing at the question "Oh man, get this, they took away her _TV_! Leiko told us, she saw it written in their logs. Heh, I wonder how it went. Did they just come into her room and tell her: 'RAWR! NO TV FOR A WEEK! YOU'RE GROUNDED!'" Sayaka could not help the grin that was spreading over her face - she was clearly very amused by the scenario. It made Madoka feel a little better, too. She had gone through some nightmare scenarios in her own head about how poorly Homura might be getting treated in there, but it sounded like things were not too bad. No doubt Sayaka knew this as well, and was trying to lighten the mood.

In actuality, there was a darker side to the scenario that they had agreed to keep away from Madoka for now, lest she worry too much. First of all, Madoka did not know about the taser, or the drugs they had pumped into the side of her neck while she was out. On top of that, there were reports in the logs telling that they were going to start trying to introduce mood altering drugs into her food soon. Also, it seemed they had figured out her power does not work if she is tied down. There were some troubling things revealed in their notes related to this, although it seemed they had not acted on any of it yet.

They had all gotten quiet as they thought things over. Mami, not wanting to lead Madoka too far astray on the seriousness of the situation, said: "There is still a long road ahead of us. We'll have Kyoko getting in there on a regular basis now. She'll be able to smuggle some GriefSeeds in and help keep her SoulGem purified. However, we don't have much of a plan for actually getting her out yet. Also, I worry Homura might push her luck with them too far. She was never one for taking orders from others very easily, you know."

"That's true." Madoka said, suddenly becoming more downcast.

"But don't worry." Mami reassured her, "You know we are all doing our best for her, so things will work out." This returned the smile to Madoka's face and she nodded.

Then, Kyoko stepped out onto the balcony. "Hey, morning sunshine!" Sayaka said. She was still dressed in her night clothes, with heavy bags under her eyes, a cup of coffee in one hand and a doughnut in the other. She moved over to Sayaka and leaned forward to give her a quick peck on the lips. She then sat down at the table across from Mami.

Kyoko turned to Madoka and put a thumb up. "Homura's looking good." she said, through a mouthful of doughnut.

"Come on, girl, we want details!" Sayaka started, "Seriously, how long are you planning to leave us in suspense?"

Kyoko rubbed her eyes and swallowed. "Can I at least finish my breakfast first?"

Sayaka grinned. "No way."

Kyoko took another big bite from the doughnut. "Alright, fine..." And she began to tell the story.

* * *

Getting inside turned out to be easier than she had thought. Really, the hard part was the night before, when Mami was quizzing her on details about her alias 'Dr. Kay Sakura'. Leiko had started off the quizzing (as she was the one who made up most of the details in the first place), but she became far too frustrated when Kyoko didn't get an answer right, which in turn got Kyoko angry with her. So, to avoid letting World War Three start, Mami had taken over on the study session.

As a group, the five of them had also brainstormed questions a psychologist might ask Homura in a situation like this. They had to keep up the appearance that she was indeed a psychologist, after all. Luckily, Kyoko did not have to memorize any of that, as they allowed her to write it down in a notebook that she was to bring in with her. Mami also suggested that she be polite - but short - with anyone she met in there. If she got sucked into a long conversation, it meant more chances for her identity to be found out. Still, they practised a few conversation skills, just in case. The hardest part was getting Kyoko to stop using swear words and slang terms.

When they thought she was ready, Kyoko used her enchantment magic to make herself appear as though she were in her late twenties. Leiko set up the appointment via email, and thus the plan had taken off. Mami also provided her with a spare GriefSeed to take to Homura. She had been stuck in there for over two weeks already, so chances of her magic running low were high. The plan for tonight was to just lay low, make note of anything that might be useful for future escape attempts, and to let Homura know that her friends had not abandoned her.

When Kyoko made it into the laboratory, all she had to do was go to the front desk and state her name and that she had an appointment. That desk led her to another desk, and another, and another, until finally one of them sent her on an elevator that took her far below the basement level. Once down there, she was greeted by two armed guards. _This place is way too secure,_ she thought, _just what kind of stuff do they got going on down here?_ She would not get any answers to that question, however, because from there on all she saw was white walls and metal doors.

After going through the third set of metal doors, Kyoko realized breaking Homura out was going to be far harder than they had originally thought. Well, finding out things like this is the main reason she was here, so at least her current mission was going well so far. Finally, they brought her to a room with normal wooden doors, and sat her down on a couch. Apparently 'Dr. Endou' wanted to speak with her before she met with Homura. _Great_ , she thought, feeling just a little nervous. Originally she was not too worried because she thought she could just bust her way out if things went south. The way it was looking now, though, she would have a hard time escaping if they saw through her disguise. _It's all good, just like Mami said. Short and polite._

She was called into his office after a few minutes. _Showtime_ , she thought. She walked into a colorful well-lit room, and thought how much of a difference it was from the rest of this place. He had family pictures on his desk, a few paintings on the walls, and a small fish tank with a goldfish swimming around in it. In the family photograph, Kyoko noticed a teenage girl. She wondered how he would feel if _his_ daughter had been kidnapped and locked up in some room underground?

The man himself was a clean-cut gentleman who appeared to be in his late-forties. His face did not hold much expression, he had a thick boxy build, and Kyoko noted how his chin line was parallel with his square shoulders.

"Doctor Sakura." He said, gesturing to a chair opposite from where he sat behind his desk. "Please, take a seat."

"Thank you." She said as she sat down.

"It's good to finally meet you in person."

"Yes, I'm glad we managed to work things out."

"You had shown interest in this project early on. We didn't think your services would be necessary, but after a certain incident the other day we thought it might be a good idea. You also came highly recommended from several contacts of ours who had been recommending psychological evaluations." Those supposed contacts of his were all just smoke and mirrors set up by Leiko. Leiko did not do a great job explaining exactly how she put all this together, but whatever the hell she had done seemed to be working.

"I'll do my best to live up to my reputation. Will I be meeting with Akemi soon?" She wanted to stray him away from the topic before he started coming up with questions about her past work and how she knew this contact and that. She had studied the answers to those possible questions, but still wanted to avoid them.

"Yes, momentarily." He said, shuffling through some papers "I told her you would be coming in soon, but before that I want to brief you on how we expect this to go." Kyoko nodded, signaling for him to continue "First of all, I'm the lead researcher of this project, and while you are here you are thought to be on contract working directly under me. Therefore, any questions you have related to Subject One should be brought to me. Any suggestions you make must be approved by me, and I have the final say in anything related to her 'treatment'. Is all this alright with you so far?" Kyoko nodded. "Furthermore, the rules of patient confidentiality don't apply here. I want to know everything that is said to her and said by her. You won't need to trouble yourself with this, though, we have recording devices in her room that will record everything for me. However, I expect a weekly report of your personal thoughts and findings, which can be delivered to me via email. Is all this acceptable?"

"I would prefer to work with her in private, but if that can't be done then yes, it is acceptable."

"Good. None of your own personal recording devices are allowed in the room. If you need to review one of your sessions with her, you can see me about getting a copy of our footage from that day. However, this copy must remain in the lab, and not be altered or re-recorded."

"Naturally."

"Now, you understand that Subject One is thought to be highly dangerous. In our emails I had suggested to you that you meet with her behind glass, but you seemed pretty adamant about refusing those conditions. Do you still stand by that?"

"I do. I won't be able to do my work properly and make a connection with her if we are not meeting face-to-face." She was reciting a well rehearsed answer that Leiko and Mami had written for her. "I accept the risk associated with the subject. Although, based on the notes you have provided to me about her, I don't think I will be in a high risk situation. She doesn't seem to lash out for no reason, only when she is provoked, and even in those instances she doesn't seem to want to cause irreparable harm to anyone."

"All the same, we will be watching closely from the security cameras. Also, we will have guards stationed outside the room in case there is an issue. We have come up with a way of detaining her in case of an outburst, so you should be fine. So, that just about wraps all of that up." He folded his hands and made an expression that she supposed was meant to be a smile, but his face did not seem capable of moving in that way "Any questions?"

"No, I think we have covered everything."

Dr. Endou pushed a button on his keyboard and spoke into a microphone. "Homura. Dr. Sakura will be coming in now."

* * *

Kyoko was quick to gloss over Homura quite nearly blowing her cover. "Anyway, how are you doing today? Mrs. Akemi."

"F-f-f-fine." She could not believe it. It was Kyoko! It was really Kyoko! How was this possible, though?

Homura had been captured soon after Mami met Leiko and recruited her to their team, so her interactions with Leiko had been limited. Homura had met Leiko once, but did not know about her peculiar form of magic. Therefore, she was clueless to how Kyoko possibly could have gotten this far under an alias.

"Just fine? Are you sure about that?" Kyoko spoke very intensely, looking her in the eyes and trying to tell her to wipe that shocked look off her face and start playing along. Homura got the message.

She folded her arms and turned away from _'Dr. Sakura'_. Her voice took on the irritated tone she would have given to the real Dr. Sakura, if one actually existed. "Yeah, just fine. Like I said."

"That was quite a violent outburst in the testing room the other day. Would you like to talk about that?" Homura kept her arms folded, and looked away with an angry look on her face. " _Jeez! What the hell's your problem!"_ was Kyoko's initial thought, until she reminded herself that Homura was putting on an act, and Kyoko slipped back into character herself "Like I said, I would like for us to be friends. I know we just met, but I'm here to help you, and I want you to know you can talk to me about things. If you would rather not talk about that right now, that's fine, though."

Homura sighed, and brushed her hair back. She looked to the ceiling, and her expression became distant for a moment, letting a small smile touch the corner of her lips ever so briefly. Then she looked back to Kyoko with a shy, hurt expression. "I was upset. I don't want to be here. I feel as though my heart is filled with _grief_ , as if my _soul_ is _hidden_ away in _this place_." When she said 'this place' her fingers pointed between her breasts. _Damn,_ thought Kyoko, _someone give this girl an academy award_. She got the message. Homura was saying she needed a GriefSeed, and she also stated that she had managed to keep her SoulGem secret from her captors.

"If there was something to help with the grief, I would like to give it to you..." Kyoko looked around, trying to think of a way to slip the GriefSeed to her. Then she noticed an open notebook with a drawing of a cat inside it. "Did you draw that?" She asked. She glanced around a bit more, and noted a camera to her back and a camera to her right. "May I see it?"

"I guess." Said Homura, as she slid the notebook over to her. Kyoko sneakily put her hand into her pocket and hid the GriefSeed in her palm. As the notebook was passed to her, she lifted up the back cover so the camera would not be able to see inside, and she passed it into Homura's hand, hidden behind that small blind spot.

"Would you like some tea, Kay?" Homura asked her, with a shy smile. She now had the GriefSeed hidden inside her own palm.

"Yes, that would be lovely. Thank you."

Then there was a bright flash of light as Homura transformed into her Magical Girl uniform and disappeared, reappearing again in what seemed like a split second. She was now standing over the table and there was a cup of tea sitting in front of Kyoko. Kyoko jumped back, trying her best to look surprised.

While time was stopped, Homura used the GriefSeed to purify her SoulGem. When that was done, she went into the kitchen to pour the tea, and slipped the spent GriefSeed back into Kyoko's pocket before resuming time.

She stood over the table with a humorous smile spread across her face. Kyoko tried her best to react appropriately as someone who had heard of magic but has just now actually seen it for the first time. "T-that's quite impressive, Miss Akemi."

"Please, just call me Homura." she said with a smile as she took her seat again. With another flash of light her clothing returned to normal.

"Alright, Homura it is then." Kyoko looked back to the drawing. "This is very good. Do you draw often?"

"I never used to before. I started doing it as a way to pass the time when I was taken here." She leaned back, letting a sad expression come over her face once more "I drew that one for a friend of mine. I don't think I'll ever get a chance to give it to her... But... since we are going to be friends, would you like to have it?"

Kyoko nodded "Thank you, I would love to keep it."

They spent the rest of their time together casually talking about TV shows and movies. Kyoko helped her finish the puzzle she had been working on, and also looked through some more of her drawings. After about an hour and a half of this, Dr. Endou (or Dr. Mono, as Homura knew him as) announced that Homura would be needing to get some rest soon, as not to affect tomorrow's schedule.

"Alright. I guess that's all for today." Kyoko said "I can come back again in three days. Would you like that?"

"Of course." Said Homura, with a smile "I can't wait."

* * *

Sayaka had grabbed another two doughnuts for Kyoko as she told the story. She was now stuffing the last of it into her mouth. "When I left the room I talked with Endou again. He totally bought the act! He said he couldn't believe I had gotten on her good side so quickly. I said something like 'She is a young girl, and she is lonely. She just needed a friend.' Or something like that. Anyway, I'm good for two sessions with her every week now." She grinned and put a thumb up, then looked over to Madoka "Oh yeah, and before I forget. Hang on a sec." Kyoko left the balcony and returned with a folded sheet of paper. "I'm pretty sure this was actually meant for you."

Madoka took it from her and unfolded it. A big smile forced itself onto her face, although she sniffed as light tears started to fall from her eyes. She sat down at the table and leaned over the cat drawing. She was still smiling, despite the tears.

"Madoka?" Sayaka asked, after a while. "Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine." She said, as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Then she got up again and threw her arms around Kyoko. Kyoko stepped back a bit, feeling embarrassed, but then returned the hug. "Thank you so much!" Madoka said, crying. Mami and Sayaka shot each other a look, conferring a mutual feeling.

"Hey, no problem. She's my friend too, you know."

After releasing Kyoko, Madoka rushed into the house. Leiko was in there, still clicking away in front of the massive computer terminal, numbers and letters and symbols Madoka had never seen before rushed past the screen. Madoka came up behind her and threw her arms around her as she had done with Kyoko.

Leiko screamed in surprise, nearly losing her glasses. Then she realized who it was and tried to pull away "Woh, hey! What's the deal?" But Madoka refused to let go of the small snowy haired girl.

She whispered "Thank you for everything, Leiko."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Homura was awakened by a loud buzz as all the lights in her apartment kicked on. With a grunt, she pulled the covers over her face. She slowly peeked out, cautiously letting her eyes adjust to the light.

 _"Homura."_ Came Dr. Mono's voice _"You will be taken in for testing in one hour. You should take this time to get ready."_

From under the covers, her half opened eyes looked over to the clock on her nightstand: _7:00 am_. She pulled the blanket back over herself and curled up into a ball. "What if I refuse?" she asked disdainfully.

 _"Then we will make arrangements to take you in forcibly, in which case we will also ban your TV privileges for an additional period of time."_ Then the intercom clicked off, and Dr. Mono seemed to have nothing more to say on the matter.

She allowed herself to stay sheltered under the covers for another fifteen minutes, but ultimately did get up. What she knew about her enemy was this: when they said eight, they meant eight. You could try and just plant your feet and refuse to move, which she had done plenty of times before, but it never worked out for her in the end.

On one occasion, on her first week here, she spent a full twenty minutes resisting them. She used her magic to shift all over the apartment while the guards ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to grab her. She even stopped time and rolled up some bed sheets to use as rope and tie them up. There was a certain satisfaction she had not felt in a long time as she laughed and watched them squirm. Eventually, Dr. Mono's voice had come over the intercom and said: _"Alright, Homura. Have it your way."_ and the guards scrambled back out of the apartment.

Homura had sat down on the couch with folded arms and a look of triumph spread across her face. That is, until she heard a low hissing sound coming from somewhere in the room. It took her only a moment to realize that in several places, high on the walls, small panels had opened up with hoses that were pumping gas into the room. She ran over to the front camera and started yelling at it, demanding an explanation, without a response. Even after using a chair to smash the camera to pieces, Dr. Mono had stayed completely silent as the room continued to fill with gas.

She had run around the room with her shirt pulled over her mouth, trying to think of something. She stopped time and gathered things to plug the hoses with. Unfortunately, there just was not enough rags and pillowcases in the house to plug them all, so she had no choice but to resume time and wait for whatever was about to happen. Before resuming time, she had used magic to push her Soul Gem inside herself (which was a bit painful), just in case they decided to strip her naked while she was out. She knew it would be bad if they ever discovered the real source of her power, so above all else she had to keep it hidden.

After only a minute of breathing the gas, she fainted. When she woke up, she was strapped down to an operating table, staring at a bright fluorescent light with a group of doctors poking and prodding at her as she lie there in nothing but a loose hospital gown. Later that night, she found that her refrigerator had been cleared out with nothing left but frozen vegetables... It was three days before they had stocked her up with normal food again...

She yawned and stretched, sitting on the side of her bed. She got up and selected a change of clothes, even though they were going to have her change into a hospital gown soon, and then went for the bathroom.

As far as she could tell, the bathroom was the only place in the apartment that did not have cameras. In her first week she had checked _very_ thoroughly, scrutinizing every shampoo bottle, pulling off the air vents, unscrewing light bulbs, and once she had even shattered the mirror off the wall. They replaced the mirror a day later. Dr. Mono asked her not to do that again, and promised her that the bathroom was the one place they were allowing her privacy, as long as she did not abuse it and try to get away with something. She honestly didn't know what that something could be anyway, so she respected the condition. The only thing she ever 'got away with' in the bathroom was a few lonely nights in the bathtub, thinking about Madoka.

She took a quick shower, brushed her teeth, and combed her hair. She then got changed and went to the kitchen. Looking at the clock, she saw she still had twenty minutes left, so she fired up the stove, grabbed a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator, and threw some bread into the toaster.

She wondered what they had in store for her today. They did not test her every day, but it was at least a few times a week. Most of the time the tests were pretty mundane: teleport over here, move this over there... Her enemy apparently was not very creative.

Sometimes they would just take her into a room and ask her questions. They would ask about her powers. They wanted to know when she first noticed she had them, if there was anyone else with this power, how did she know about the disaster, has she had any other visions of the future, does anyone else know what she can do... etcetera...

She played stupid on most of these questions. She did not tell them that she was from the future. To the question of how she knew about the disaster: she simply shrugged her shoulders and said _'I just knew'_. She claimed she first noticed her powers after waking up in the hospital all those months ago when she first recovered from being sick. She said she does not know how or why she has these power, and she has not had any other visions, but if she does she wouldl let them know.

The question she was most adamant on playing stupid about is whether or not there are any other Magical Girls in the world. She imagined the existence of Magical Girls was made known in the past, which is probably what led to all those old stories about witch hunts. In today's day and age of mass media and record keeping it would be a disaster for Magical Girls everywhere if people knew about them, and that was not something she wanted to be held responsible for.

The days she had to be the most on edge is when they wanted to actually examine her body and her Magical Girl related gadgets. On these days she took the same approach to the questioning, and refused to cooperate with them. Since she had to be transformed for most of her powers to work they could not just knock her out and do their experiments. They needed her to cooperate.

She had to make sure they didn't learn about her shield space. That is where her trump card was hidden, and she certainly could not let them know about her Soul Gem. She could only imagine the horrors they would put her through if they had that little gem to start running experiments on.

The eggs were now spotted with a soft golden brown, so she moved them over to the plate and started buttering the bread. She poured herself a glass of orange juice from the fridge and moved her breakfast over to the dining room table.

Kyoko coming here made her a bit nervous. She was deeply relieved to be in contact with her friends again, but there were a lot of dangers involved too. If she were to get caught, and they were to figure out that Kyoko also had powers, it would certainly lead to them seeking out even more Magical Girls. Right now, if Homura can keep them under the assumption that it is only she who has powers, then there will remain a level of doubt whether more girls like her could exist or not.

Thinking of Kyoko, Homura still had no idea how she managed to get in here in the first place. Dr. Kay Sakura was obviously a completely fictional character, so it is not like she just took over an already existing identity, and Homura was pretty sure her enemy did not just go leafing through the yellow pages for psychologists. Homura imagined even knowing about Subject One's existence was highly classified information.

Homura would have to try and get a private conversation in with Kyoko on their next session together, so she could get some answers to these questions. They needed Kyubey to use telepathy, and ever since they had a falling out with that rat bastard he had not been very helpful in working with them. Besides, Homura was pretty sure Kyubey was anxiously awaiting for her to turn into a witch down here and would not help them even if they were on speaking terms.

So, with the telepathy option out, her best option would be to try and pull Kyoko into her time flow so they could chat. She had to be careful with that though. Her enemy would recognize what she had done, and put Kyoko under some serious scrutiny about what Homura said and did while time was frozen. It would be tricky, but she did have a plan hatching. One that involved taking a certain psychologist hostage and using her as a bargaining chip. Kyoko would be pretty pissed off about that plan, and part of Homura wanted to go through with it just to see the look on her face and hear her particular set of colorful vocabulary words. The plan still had some pretty big fallouts that she was working on, but she would iron it all out in time.

She was just about finished with her breakfast when the clock struck 8:00 am, and Dr. Mono's voice came over the speaker _"Homura, your escorts will be entering the room momentarily."_

She mopped up the last of egg yolk with the bread and stuffed it into her mouth, before bringing the dish over to the sink to run some hot water over it. Then she went back to the main room to await her 'escorts'.

The metal door beeped and slid open, revealing two guards in their white security uniforms. No guns this time, _smart_ , but they did have something else. Each of them held a three-foot pole with a wired noose at the end. It looked like something a dog catcher might use to leash an unsuspecting pooch around the neck. Homura just stood and stared at them.

One of the guards stepped forward and said "Please turn around and put your hands behind your back, Miss Akemi." Homura did not obey this order. Instead, she pulled her magic and became covered in rainbow light as she started walking towards them. "H-halt!" He shouted foolishly, and his hand reached for the taser at his side. The transformation completed, and Homura _blinked_ \- disappearing and reappearing right in front of him.

She took a note from Kyoko and gave him some chosen words "Put so much as a finger on that thing, and I'll break your wrist and shove ten thousand volts up your ass." They both got the message and cleared a path as she continued to walk toward the camera.

"What the hell is this?" She demanded, staring right up into it's lense.

It took a moment for Dr. Mono to respond, in the meantime Homura continued to stare the camera down with her dark intense eyes. _"The escorts were given orders to detain you while you are led to the test room. Since you betrayed our trust the other day we are forced to take measures to ensure the safety of our employees."_

"If you think I'm going to go along with something like that you're out of your damn mind!"

 _"Please consider your options, Miss Akemi. We have other ways of bringing you along if you're unwilling. Also, we ask that you do not bring any harm to these employees in the meantime."_

She gritted her teeth and her fists balled at her sides "Bring it on!" She screamed "Tase me, gas me, drug me! I don't give a damn! There's no way I'm going to be led around on a leash like a damn dog!" Her anger was becoming too much for her, and she could feel tears stinging the corners of her eyes, but she held it back.

 _"Very well, Miss Akemi, the escorts will be leaving now. Please allow them to do so."_

Homura turned to the guards, eyes bloodshot and pulsing with fury. They both flinched back at the sight of her, and froze, not sure if it would be wise to take their leave or not. With gritted teeth Homura whispered in a cold murderous voice: _"Go."_ and they were both quick to obey as they scurried past her and out the metal door.

She kept her back to the camera, and once they were gone she set the gears spinning on her shield.

She was now alone in her own time, where no one could see her or bother her, tell her what to do or treat her like an animal. She fell to her knees and she screamed, tears falling from her eyes as she rained her fists down on the hard tile floor. She struck the floor over and over, until her knuckles were scratched and bleeding. Eventually, the pain got through to her, and she stopped.

She stood up and stormed over to the dining room. She grabbed a chair and threw it at the wall. It froze in mid-air before reaching its destination. She then grabbed another one and starting hitting the wall directly. It took a few strikes to make it shattered into pieces and freeze. Now she was left holding a single chair leg, which she used to go around to all the cameras and smash them off the walls.

After that, she started pacing around the apartment and looking for more things to break. She smashed the TV, the bathroom mirror, knocked over the stand full of DVDs, stomped on the gaming console, and went to the kitchen and threw dishes by the stack. She didn't care about any of this. She didn't care if they took everything away from her and just left her in a small white box with nothing. She was sick of this, she was sick of being here. She felt guilty about the risk her friends were taking for her, and she missed Madoka.

When her anger was all out and she was satisfied that she had done enough, she sat down on the couch. She sat with her hands on her head and her dark hair falling over her wet face.

She let time resume. The room exploded with a series of bangs and crashes, and pieces of broken furniture rained down around her. The TV exploded in front of her and sent shards of glass flying everywhere. The cameras fell from their places on the walls and smashed on the floor.

She continued to sit, and wait for the gas, now thinking how stupid all of this was. Really, she only hurt herself because those were all her own things she had just smashed. Except they were not really her things, it was _their_ things she had smashed. They were things that her enemy had given to her so they could act like it was okay that they had locked her up down here; so they could pretend it is alright to experiment on her and keep her away from her friends; so they could chastise her as if they were so innocent and she was in the wrong, and say _'look at all we are doing for you and this is how you repay us?'_. She was done with it, she was done accepting their _hospitality_.

She waited for the gas, but it never came. She lifted her head and looked along the walls to verify that the panels were not opening. What the hell were they waiting for? She wondered.

She listened closely. She could hear the soft buzzing of fluorescent lights - _and that is_ all _she could hear..._

* * *

It was two days after Kyoko's first undercover mission. Madoka woke with a yawn, and smiled at the sun hitting her face. She had been uneasy ever since Homura first disappeared, and even more so when they figured out what had happened. Now, she was starting to feel at least a little better about the situation. Things no longer seemed so hopeless, and she was confident that they would be able to help Homura out of her situation. It might be a while longer, as Mami said, but at least they were making progress.

It was also a relief to know Homura would have a friend in there. She knew Homura was always one to put on a tough face, but the truth was in a situation like this she would be scared and lonely just like anyone else. Madoka would have liked to be able to go visit herself, but of course it would be impossible since she was not a Magical Girl, and Kyoko was the only one who could change her appearance to make herself look like an adult. Still, it was a comfort to know Homura at least had _someone_.

There was something else that was bothering her right now, though. Last night, Leiko and Sayaka had almost gotten into another fight.

It started when the five of them were sitting around the table, snacking on some pastries Mami had made and brainstorming their plans. Sayaka had cut in and said: "Hey guys, I was thinking, can I start helping out more with Kyoko's studying sessions?" They had decided that aside from just the details of the fictional Kay Sakura, Kyoko should also learn a few things about psychology to strengthen the believability of her character. "I really haven't been able to do much to help with all this." Sayaka confessed, "So I figure I could at least help out with that part. What do you think?"

Leiko cleared her throat, dropping a cube of sugar into her coffee, and said: "I would really be more comfortable if Mami just continued. We don't need you stepping in and messing things up." If this was the first jab Leiko had ever taken at Sayaka things might have been okay. However, she had finally pulled the last straw, and Sayaka was ready for a confrontation. Honestly, it was surprising it had not happened sooner.

"That's it!" Sayaka had shouted as she stood up and leaned over the table, rolling up a sleeve. "The hell's your problem, anyway? Are you looking for a fight or what?"

"Ooooo-KAY!" Kyoko cut in, quickly grabbing Sayaka by the collar and pulling her back. She grinned. "Why don't we all just take five?" and led Sayaka toward the balcony.

Leiko had dropped another few sugar cubes into her coffee and her hand was going back for more. "Honestly, it's bad enough we have to use Sakura. If we had someone with a little more class we wouldn't have to waste so much time on these study sessions in the first place."

Kyoko let go of Sayaka and started cracking her knuckles. Her good humored grin faded to a scolding frown and her eyes came alive with fire. _"That's it, she's dead."_

Now it was Sayaka's turn to drag Kyoko away; she laughed and said: "How about some fresh air?" seeming to have completely forgotten her own rage from only a moment ago.

Madoka had been was quiet through all of that, not knowing how to fix things herself. Once they were gone Mami said: "Leiko, do you think you could try to be just a little more friendly with them?"

"What are you talking about? What I said is true, isn't it?" She dropped another couple of sugar cubes in, and seemed to have finally felt that was enough.

 _She sure likes things sweet,_ Madoka thought.

"This isn't a game you know, and if she gets caught it's my ass on the line too. I did a pretty good job covering my tracks but I doubt it would hold up under a full scale government investigation. It would mean trouble for you as well, Mami. There's a chance they could trace things back to your apartment and even if they didn't catch you, your identity would be compromised.

"Although, I have to admit Kyoko is doing better than I thought she would. I honestly thought this whole thing would be a disaster, but she somehow managed to prove me wrong. So far, anyway."

 _Wow,_ Madoka had thought, _that almost sounded like a compliment._

She knew deep down Leiko was a good person, but there was just that attitude of hers. She wanted all of them to be friends, but with Leiko being so absolutely opposed to opening up to anyone or even just showing basic common courtesies, she did not know how to do it.

She decided she would ask her mom for advice on this. She used to go to her mom for advice all the time, but ever since this whole Magical Girl thing started she knew she had to be careful with that. She disliked not telling her mom things, but she knew it had to stay secret. On something like this, at least, she figured she could go to her.

In a few minutes she found herself side by side with her at the bathroom sink, both of them brushing their teeth as was part of their morning ritual. When Madoka finished and spat into the sink she said: "Hey mom, can I ask you something?"

Her mom had started working on her make up, carefully applying eyeliner as she answered "What is it, sweetie?"

"Well, I have a new friend, Leiko, who has been joining our study sessions over at Mami's house, but it seems like she is having trouble getting along with everyone else."

"Is it that she's not fitting in?"

"Not exactly, and honestly it's kinda her fault. I know that she is a nice person inside because she can be very helpful sometimes, but most of the time she is just very rude to everyone. She is quick to call someone stupid if they don't understand something, and she acts as though she is superior to everyone. If you try to talk to her she just brushes you off and acts like she is annoyed with you. I don't know how to make her lighten up."

"Hm, sounds like a real firecracker." Junko laughed, "Let me ask this. You, Sayaka, Mami, and... was it Kyoko? You've all been friends for a long time, right?" Madoka nodded in agreement. "And this Leiko is new to the group, isn't she?" Madoka nodded again. "Sounds to me like she might have some social anxiety issues. She is probably intimidated about being the black sheep in a group full of long term friends. Sometimes when people are self-conscious about something, they try to put others down to mask their own insecurities. Maybe if you could get to know her one-on-one, away from everyone else, she'd have an easier time opening up. Then, once she has at least one good friend in the group it will be easier for her to lighten up around the others." Junko winked. "You should see if you can convince her to go out on a date with you." Then, remembering her daughter's relationship with Homura, "Well, I don't mean like _that_."

"Hmm, yeah that sounds like a good idea." Madoka suddenly became so excited about the prospect that she rushed out of the bathroom to go find something cute to wear. She hollered back: "Thanks mom!"

* * *

Madoka arrived at Mami's apartment at around noon. Since she was not actually expected this time she knocked first, but didn't get an answer. After a minute of waiting she opened the door and poked her head inside "Hello?" There was no response but she did hear the clicking of a keyboard, and decided it would be okay to just go inside. Nobody else was home, except for Leiko who sat at her computer terminal clicking and tapping away, completely oblivious to anything else in the world around her, as always.

Madoka cleared her throat to try and get Leiko's attention, but when that didn't work she said "Hey, Leiko." She said it softly, trying to avoid startling her again. It seemed it wasn't working, however. She repositioned herself to Leiko's side and waved a hand, trying to get noticed in her peripheral vision, but that did not work either. "Leiko, good afternoon!" She tried again, still not too loudly. She took one more step forward and tried a third time: "Hey, Leiko!"

Leiko screamed, jumping back in her chair. She pushed her glasses back up and looked over to Madoka "Oh, it's you."

"Sorry." Madoka smiled awkwardly. "I was trying not to startle you."

"It's fine." Said Leiko, quickly turning back to her computer, as was her go-to move when trying to avoid conversation.

"Where is everyone else?" Madoka asked.

"Mami went shopping, Sakura and Miki haven't showed up yet today. They might be out on a witch hunt." The clicking and typing had already started again. Normally the conversation would end here, but after an awkward silence Madoka reached for something to say.

"This computer is really impressive, Leiko. I don't think I've ever seen one like it before... All I have at my house is a regular laptop." Leiko did not respond, and just continued typing away. "Um... do you have another one like it at your home?"

"No, the computer at my home is ordinary... since when have you started calling me by my personal name?" There was such an unnecessary level of resentment in Leiko's voice at that last part that it nearly killed all the confidence Madoka had to continue trying to make friends. She had encountered rude people in her life before, but she was sad to say Leiko might have been the absolute worst.

"I- um... well, you've been helping out so much lately. And, and, I thought we could be friends..." The clicking and typing continued. "Um... I can go back to calling you Amaya-san if that's what you prefer..."

"Whatever, it's fine." Well, at least she had permission to call her Leiko now, but they were once again in that awkward silence that felt as though the conversation should end.

However, Madoka gathered her courage. Mama would ask her how things went, and would be disappointed to hear that she had given up so easily. More than that, she would be disappointed in herself. She came over here with a purpose and she decided she would not give up. She didn't understand Leiko's character, but she knew there was a good person locked somewhere behind all the short remarks and bad temperaments. She was going to do her best to break through and reach that nice person!

"Say, Leiko..."

"Hm?"

"There's this really great coffee shop just down the street from here. I was thinking about heading down there, would you like to come?"

"I'll pass." Leiko answered, flatly.

"Are you sure?

"I'm busy."

"I mean, all I ever see you do is sit in front of this computer. Don't you ever take a break?"

"Sometimes."

"Well then, how about taking a break with me!"

Leiko stopped clicking and turned to her with that conceited look of superiority and said "Is it your mission to be extra annoying today, or is it just that there isn't anyone else around for you to bother? I don't want to go to some stupid coffee shop, especially not with an annoying girl like you."

Madoka took a full step back, and her mouth dropped open in shock. No one had ever spoken to her like that before. Leiko's lip raised slightly in what Madoka guessed was a smile. She seemed totally satisfied with herself as she turned back to the computer and continued as she was.

Then, Madoka shook away the shocked expression, and her face scrunched up and became red with anger. Her fists balled at her sides and she stormed away with heavy steps.

Leiko got back to work on whatever it was she was doing, seeming not to give the confrontation a second thought. Next thing she knew, she spotted some movement out of the corner of her eye. She tried her best to ignore it and not move her head, she figured taking notice would only open the door to more conversation. Then, she heard something set down on the floor right behind her, and she could feel Madoka's presence upon her. She knew Madoka was there, but Madoka was being completely silent.

After a full minute of this, Leiko couldn't take it anymore, and she turned her head to see what the hell that girl was doing.

She was sitting. She had grabbed a chair from the dining room and brought it back to sit over Leiko's shoulder and watch what she was doing. There she sat, saying not a word, just sitting with folded arms and an accomplished look on her face. Leiko pushed her glasses up and gave Madoka one of those classic Leiko expressions. "What are you doing?"

"What's it look like? I'm sitting."

"I see that... but why right there?"

"I'm free to sit anywhere I want, right?"

Leiko scoffed and turned back to her computer. "Suit yourself."

Madoka watched the screen, not really sure what she was looking at. There were lines of text zipping by. Sometimes there were number and letters, sometimes there were symbols she had never seen before, other times it just looked like static. At one point Leiko's hand moved over to the actual computer tower, and Madoka noted something that looked like electricity, except with more color, shoot from her fingertips and into the tower. Madoka's eyes widened as she saw this, thinking that must be her magic. She had tried to ask Leiko about it before, without getting a clear answer, but she figured she would try once more.

"Just what exactly does your magic do?"

"It's hard to explain."

"Can you try?"

"No."

Madoka's face scrunched up again, but she was quick to brush it off. Leiko was obviously going to be a closed book about her magic, and Madoka got the impression that talking to a Magical Girl about her powers and other Magical Girl related stuff was sometimes a touchy subject, so she thought of something else to say. "You sure spend a lot of time over here at Mami's place."

"This is where my computer is."

"How come you don't have it at your house?"

"Because I'm trying to keep certain things secret from my family. They think that I've been spending time with a boyfriend these last few weeks." Madoka could not help but laugh, but she was quick to stifle it into the back of her wrist. "Something funny about that?"

"No, no." said Madoka, waving her hands apologetically. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just it's more common for someone to lie to their parents to hide that they _have_ a boyfriend, but you did the opposite and lied about having a boyfriend to hide something else. Heh, well I don't know, I thought it was kind of funny."

"I guess I can see the humor."

Madoka also thought it was kind of strange. Wasn't it a bit abnormal for a parent to be okay with their fourteen-year-old daughter spending that much time with a boyfriend who they had never even met? Madoka didn't want to come off sounding nosy, so she did not point this out.

"Um... Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"An older sister."

"Oh, how old?"

"Eighteen..."

"Do you get along well with her?"

"I guess."

"I think having an older sister would be really cool! Um, I do have a little brother, though. He's only a toddler, but he's so adorable! He just took his first steps a couple weeks ago... well, my dad was helping him a bit, but still, it was really cool to see!"

"Fascinating."

"Have you ever tried braiding your hair?"

"No."

"You should! I think that would suit you really well! I tried it once, I don't think it worked for me, though, so I started just using these ribbons to make pigtails. Actually, it was my mom's idea."

"Once again, absolutely fascinating."

"Um... what school do you go to? You're in the same grade as us, right? But I've never seen you around before."

"I've always been home schooled..." Leiko turned away from the computer again, with her typical look of annoyance. "Is there a point to all of these meandering questions? Or are you just trying to annoy me?"

"Nope, just trying to annoy you!" said Madoka, with a bright smile on her face.

"It's certainly working..." Leiko pushed away from the computer desk and sighed. "Well, I can't get any work done like this, and I suppose I could use a break... If I go to that coffee shop with you, will you promise to leave me alone for the rest of the day?"

Madoka's smile brightened even more. "Yup, you got it!"

* * *

 **Hey just wanted to send out a quick thank you to all the readers/reviewers/subscribers. This story hasn't been up for even 2 weeks yet but already there are 16 follows and 10 reviews, which seems pretty big! I'm glad that you all are enjoying!**

 **With the telepathy thing, I kind of took that power away from them because that would make things waaay too easy lol, and I think it would totally ruin the Homura/Kyoko scenes. In the show, at one point or another, I think they said something about needing Kyubey to use it so I ran with that as an excuse for why they don't have it now. Although, I think technically that was just meant for non-Magical Girls, I'm going to ignore that detail and just say no one can use it XD**

 **I'll keep trying to keep updates fairly frequent. I have a bad habit of putting too much on my plate, as I'm currently working on 4 fics at once and am rotating between them, but so far I've managed to not go much longer than a week without an update between each one.**

 **Thanks again to all you readers out there! and I've enjoyed reading the reviews too :)**

 **-Atomsk**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Leiko seemed less pretentious when she was outside the apartment and away from her computer, although, the trade-off to that is her pessimism had gone off the charts. Her first complaint came only two steps outside when she commented on how hot it was. The next complaint was not long after that when they passed by an apartment that had music playing too loudly. As they walked down the street she complained about cars passing by too fast, and she complained about the stoplight taking too long. When she asked how far the coffee shop was she did so with a tone that even the question sounded more like a complaint.

Madoka sighed, trying to think of a way to steer the conversation in a more positive direction. Leiko mentioned being home schooled. Madoka had never met someone who did that before, so she used it to venture onto a new topic. "So what's it like being home schooled?"

"Instead of going to a school to study I do so at home." Her pretentious nature shined through again. "What do you mean what's it like?"

Madoka rolled her eyes secretly, and put back on a smile. "I mean, like, do you have teachers who work with you, or are you mostly self-taught?"

Leiko thought about it for a moment. "A little bit of both. When I was younger I was mostly taught by tutors. As I got older I started taking my studies upon myself more. I do still have a couple of tutors, but they honestly don't do much. I don't think they are really necessary anymore."

"Wow, you must be really smart."

Leiko shrugged. "I guess. Even in grade school I think I was above average, but I had a lot of advantages over the years that most people don't get. I think for the most part everyone has the same potential, but ultimately are a product of their environment." That made Madoka grin, that cool matter-of-fact way of speaking kind of reminded her of Homura.

"Um, is your family wealthy?" Madoka asked.

"Hmmm..." Leiko thought for a moment and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. I don't really think of it like that though."

She did not really get the impression that Leiko was a rich girl based off of her appearance. Everything about her seemed so average; she wore a simple black hoodie which was zipped up only half way, with a white shirt underneath containing some writing in English letters that Madoka could not read. The only flashy thing about her was the green earring she had on which Madoka knew was actually her Soul Gem. Other than that, she did not have any of the elegance Madoka pictured wealthy people having. She pictured those type of people to be more like Mami. Having personal tutors and stuff like that certainly was not something a family of ordinary income could afford, however.

"What do your parents do?"

"My father founded a company... eh, it's hard to explain and you never would have heard of it anyway. It mostly operates overseas."

"Oh, Sayaka's parents are business partners who work overseas a lot as well. Is your father away from home a lot?"

"Not really. He keeps up with things long-distance I guess."

"Oh, I see... What about your mother?"

"Never met her." Leiko shrugged.

"Oh, I'm sorry..."

"It's nothing."

"Being self taught is really amazing though." Madoka quickly changed the subject. "What do you plan to be when you get older?" Leiko just shrugged in response, not giving any inclination that she planned to answer the question. "Well, as for me, I really like animals, so I was thinking I'd like to be a veterinarian... mmm, that or a school teacher because I'm good with kids too."

"Fantastic." Said Leiko, dryly. Madoka frowned, she had thought she was starting to get somewhere with Leiko as far as making her lighten up, because she was talking a little more, but she suddenly seemed to slip back into her ordinary ways. Homura acted like that sometimes too, Madoka thought, but they were not totally the same. Even when Homura was being a bit stand-offish, there was also a certain layer of kindness to her which Leiko lacked.

"Surely there must be something you want to do. You're so good with computers, I bet you would go for a tech job, or something like that."

"Yeah, I probably would have." said Leiko. "It doesn't matter anymore, though." With that Leiko sped up the pace, forcing a cold shoulder onto Madoka. "Are we almost there?"

"Um, yes, it's right over there. Actually..."

Doesn't matter anymore? What could have she meant by that? Madoka wanted to ask, but Leiko was already leading the way into the shop before she had a chance to question her on it.

It was a Saturday afternoon and therefore the shop was quite busy. Leiko complained about it as they went through the door.

"Don't worry, they are pretty fast usually." Madoka said, trying her best to stay cheery. They got into line and waited. Leiko focused hard on the menu overhead. Madoka also glanced over it, although she already knew what she wanted.

She hoped she would be able to get through with Leiko in the end. Homura had a similar way about her. She typically was not all that talkative, and she could also be extremely blunt to the point of meanness, the same as Leiko. With Homura it was different, however. Behind her dry tone and thick-skinned nature there was a certain sweetness to her. Even going back as far as the first day they met in the school hallway, when Homura delivered all those cryptic messages and warnings of the future. Despite being totally freaked out, Madoka was still able to see some kindness in her. It seemed that the only thing sweet about Leiko, however, was the way she liked her drinks. Sometimes it seemed she was mean just for the sake of being mean, which is something Homura never did; aside from when she would occasionally pick on Sayaka, but even that was in good humor, and Sayaka usually had plenty of retorts of her own.

Madoka looked over to Leiko. She was still staring hard at the menu, but occasionally her eyes would drop away and dart around the room. Her hands buried themselves deeper into her jacket pocket and her shoulders shrunk down. It looked as if she was trying to bury herself inside her jacket and hide. Madoka was a couple inches taller than Leiko, which was an abnormal experience for her since she was on the short side herself, but the white haired girl's hunched over posture made her seem even smaller.

Madoka looked around the café, it was really crowded here after all. Nearly every seat was taken, there were several people in front of them in line, and more customers were filing in behind them already. Did Leiko feel nervous about the crowd? It would make sense; if she was home schooled her whole life maybe she never got used to being around people. That would explain why she was so rough in the way she spoke.

Madoka thought she was starting to understand her character more and began to feel guilty for thinking badly of her, however briefly it may have been. Leiko was working hard to help them rescue Homura after all, so surely that was proof she was not bad. That's right, she thought, Leiko was part of their team, and no matter what, she had to try her best to be friends with her! As she thought that, she looked over to Leiko and smiled.

Leiko noticed and responded to the smile with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Oh." Madoka blushed, "It's nothing, I was just thinking you kind of remind me of someone. Heh, you actually remind me a lot of Homura."

"Is that right..." Leiko pushed her glasses up and looked back to the menu.

"Heh, yup. Well, sort of, anyway."

"Yeah, well I wouldn't know. I only met her once." Madoka was around during that brief meeting, and it really was not much of a meeting. Mami introduced Homura as she came through the door. Leiko had been sitting at her computer. They both looked at each other, nodded once, and that was that.

She wondered if Leiko and Homura would be friends. They had a similar way of thinking about things, it seemed. It was for that same reason Kyoko and Homura seemed to get along, even back before the rest of the group warmed up to Homura. Although for some reason it did not work that way with Kyoko and Leiko, as they seemed to be at each other's throats quite a bit.

Mami, on the other hand, seemed to get along just fine with Leiko. It was not that they were close friends, but they hardly ever bickered at each other. Maybe it was just because Mami just was not the bickering type. Either way, it would be nice if Leiko could be in the same room with Sayaka and Kyoko without it feeling as if a time bomb was ready to go off.

It was their turn now, and they stepped up to the counter. Madoka gave the clerk a hearty ' _good morning'_ , while Leiko just stood by absent of any expression until it was her turn to order. Madoka ordered a french vanilla cappuccino, and Leiko ordered a caramel white mocha latte. Leiko reached into her pocket, presumably to take out money, but Madoka stopped her. "It's okay, I got it." Leiko seemed like she wanted to complain, but Madoka continued: "It's okay, I'm the one who invited you, right?" She gave her a big smile, to which Leiko let her eyes shrink away, giving an indifferent shrug.

After the drinks were made and slid to them, they both gave thanks to the clerk. Leiko's ' _thank you'_ was a bit dry, but otherwise she said it pleasantly enough.

Leiko tried to go for the door, but Madoka spotted an empty booth and stopped her by saying: "Hey, there's an empty seat over there."

Her eyes shifted around. "It's kind of busy in here, I'd rather go back. You're welcome to stay, though." And she started to turn around, but Madoka got in her way.

"Hey, the agreement was that you would have a coffee with me." she said with a perfectly innocent smile. "If you don't keep up with your end of the deal, then I guess I'll just have to spend the rest of the day annoying you!"

Leiko reluctantly agreed, although in the back of her mind she was thinking: _'this girl is secretly the devil'._

* * *

 _What the hell are they waiting for?_

Homura lied on the couch, staring at the ceiling, accompanied by nothing but that soft buzzing sound she could not stop herself from focusing on. All around her the room was a mess. There was shattered glass, broken chair legs, and all other kinds of smashed and broken debris lying around on the floor. She looked over to the clock that was stationed on the wall by the front door: 11:04. It had been just over three hours since she had denied going to their testing appointment, and instead had smashed up her apartment. Her enemy had been completely quiet since then. That worried her more than anything. She expected to just get gassed the second she refused them, but that has not happened yet. Nothing has happened. She has just been laying on the couch staring at the ceiling this entire time, not making a sound... _Not making a sound..._

That is right, she had been completely quiet these last three hours, and she had smashed the cameras so they could not see her either. They could not see her or hear her, yet they had not even bothered to check if she was alright. What if she hurt herself? What if she committed suicide? They wouldn't want to lose their precious test subject, so why have they not at least tried to check up on her yet?

She sat up and looked around the room. She was thinking: maybe there were more cameras she did not know about? She had checked the bathroom pretty thoroughly for hidden cameras, but she never thought to do so in the rest of the apartment. It would not make sense to hide cameras when there were already so many out in plain sight, but on the other hand, maybe that would be the perfect method for hiding cameras, because naturally she wouldn't think to look for more when there were already others in plain sight like this... But where could they be?

Her first idea was the TV. She got up and walked over to it, being careful not to step on any glass, and looked inside the hole she had created on its face. She bent down and picked up a splintered chair leg, then jammed it into the hole and started wedging it back and forth to break the rest of the glass away. When she was done there were only bits and scraps left around the edges of the frame. She lowered her head inside just enough to look around. As far as she could tell, nothing was out of the ordinary.

Where else? An idea hit her instantly, and she wondered why it had not occurred to her sooner. There was this stupid little stuffed teddy bear in her bedroom.

They had filled the apartment with lots of random things for her entertainment: puzzles, games, model kits, books... etcetera... The bear always struck her as odd, but she partly assumed it was just because they had misjudged her personality. She supposed there are some fifteen-year-old girls out there who still liked stuffed animals (her Madoka being one example), so she did not think much of it before.

She went into the kitchen to grab a knife and brought it into the bedroom. She found the stuffed bear on top of her dresser, where it had not moved since the day she was first brought here. She picked it up and turned it around, and plunged the knife into its back. Pulling down hard, she filleted it and let the white cotton spill out before pulling out the remnants. Its body was mostly empty, but when she made it up to its head she found a little black box with a wire attached to the backside of one of its eyeballs. She turned the bear so it could face her, saying: "Nice try" before ripping the wire out of its eyeball. She looked up and waited for the intercom to buzz on, but still nothing. _Still going with the silent treatment, huh?_

Now she knew for sure that there had been at least one hidden camera, which meant there were probably even more. That bear would not have been able to see her from where she had lain in the living room, so that meant there was at least one more hidden camera located there as well. She got to searching for it, but she did not get far before the intercom finally buzzed on. It was not Doctor Mono, but the softer-toned guy she sometimes got. "Homura, what are you doing?"

"Just a little spring cleaning." She spoke sardonically as she emptied out a vase with a fake flower in it, then tossed it against the wall, shattering it.

"If you continue destroying cameras to the point that we can no longer keep an eye on you, we will have no choice but to put you to sleep. Do you want that?"

She pulled the clock off the wall and looked at the little spot in the center where the two hands connected. She had to look closely, but there was quite clearly a lens there. _Of course, so obvious._

"I'll tell you what I want." She held the clock in front of her face and spoke directly into it. "I want you people to let me out of here!"

"Please understand things from our perspective. As a society we can't have someone with your extraordinary abilities running around freely on the streets. At least not without being under close observation, which is a life you may have one day if you can show us you are willing to work with us while you are here.

"Furthermore, if we could unlock the secret to your abilities, just think of the good it would do for our country. You used your power to save Mitakihara from a disaster, so I'm sure you care for your country. Just think of all the other good deeds you could accomplish if you worked with us."

"I'm glad you brought that up. I save an entire city from a disaster, and I'm rewarded by being locked up in a basement. Sorry, but I don't see much point in doing good deeds anymore if that's how I'm repaid."

"We've tried to provide you with all the comforts we could. If there is anything else you need, please don't hesitate to ask."

She gritted her teeth, palmed the back of the clock and slammed its face into the wall, shattering it to pieces. She didn't know if she got the camera or not, but it landed face down amidst the ruins of its own broken glass, so there was no need to worry about it. Then she went to the couch and started ripping it open with her knife, trying to see if there was anything to find in there.

The intercom buzzed on: "There's a camera on the stove timer, behind the painting of a forest to the right of your bedroom, inside the VCR which you've already broken, and in the potted plant in the back-right corner. I'm sure you would have been able to find them anyway, but please don't go about breaking them or we will be forced to use the gas."

"I'm surprised you haven't used it already."

"That was Dr. Endou's idea, as was the idea to detain you this morning, but his qualifications for this project are currently being re-evaluated. Homura, we don't want to be your enemy, we understand how you must feel about all this, but we want you to work with us. Dr. Sakura had an appointment with you tomorrow, but we can see if she would be willing to come in today, if you like." Homura looked over to the plant that supposedly had a camera in it and shrugged. She did not want to seem too eager to meet with Dr. Sakura, lest she accidentally put Kyoko under extra scrutiny.

The revelation about the hidden cameras gave her something else to worry about, however. Thus, she transformed into her Magical Girl uniform and stopped time. She went to all the places that he claimed had cameras hidden, and checked them out. More important than verifying if they were there or not, she needed to get an idea of how much they could see.

Kyoko had passed her a Grief Seed from behind a notebook, where she thought it would be hidden from the cameras. If one of these hidden cameras could see that blind spot, well, that could mean serious trouble. After finding and checking out the angle on each, however, she found that it was okay. _Although, there might be more cameras_ , she thought. If they had noticed something through a hidden camera, then the doctor would not tell her about that specific camera, lest she'd figure it out. Furthermore, maybe telling her about those cameras was just a ruse to stop her from looking for even more.

She sat down at the dining room table and tried to remember the exact angle the notebook was at. She then looked over to that side of the room and tried to look for a place where a camera could be hidden. She did not see anything obvious, but walked over there and paced around for a while, searching. Ultimately, she didn't find anything and thought it was okay. She would try to give Kyoko a warning about the hidden cameras, and tell her they were going to have to be more careful. She was thinking they should not try to do anything sneaky unless Homura could pull her into her timeflow and have a private conversation. Other than that, it was too risky to try anything while they were unaware of how much could be seen or heard.

She got up and went to stand back where she was when she first stopped time. She resumed time, and transformed back into her regular clothing. "Yeah." she said to the plant, "You can send in the psychologist. I don't mind her." Then she looked around at the wrecked room and thought _'I guess I'd better clean up a bit'._

* * *

Madoka tried her best to make smalltalk with Leiko while they sat with their coffees. As always, though, Leiko was not very present in the conversation. Madoka was finding the best way to get more than a one-word response was to force her to explain something. Sometimes that did not work either, however, for a lot of the times Leiko's strategy of avoiding that would be to say: "It's hard to explain" or "You wouldn't understand" So for the most part, Madoka just talked about herself, getting a sarcastic "you don't say" or "how enlightening" out of Leiko on occasion.

She watched Leiko rip open what Madoka counted to be her twelfth sugar packet and dump it into her latte. Aside from all the sugar, she had ordered the caramel white mocha, which was already one of the sweetest drinks on the menu. "You sure like things sweet." Madoka commented.

"Yup."

Madoka watched her for a moment, but forced her eyes over to the window, not wanting to be caught staring at her again. She was thinking Leiko did not put too much effort into her appearance, but if she did she could be really cute. A little makeup would go a long way for her, eyeliner would be great, and her hair just begged to be braided.

Madoka glanced her eyes over to her hair once more just quickly enough to get a double take on it. It was long and cut cleanly enough, but not styled at all. Madoka thought if she got the chance, she would probably just leave it straight in the back and braid the sides into a couple of twintails. There was enough volume to it that it would probably work out great! Then, maybe she would put bows on the ends - definitely green bows - to match the green of her eyes and the SoulGem earring.

Homura had great hair too, and she mostly preferred to just keep it straight, but she would let Madoka braid it once in a while. She said she used to keep it in two long pigtails, but had stopped the practice for some reason. Having been told that, Madoka just had to try it and would not take "no" for an answer. When she was done, she got a strange feeling seeing Homura's hair like that. Something about it just seemed right. It gave her a weird sense of déjà vu, like she had seen it before, but at the same time it did not really fit Homura's personality at all. Madoka's thoughts having trailed off into thinking about Homura caused her to gaze out the window and sigh longingly. She really missed her.

After testing her latte again, after who knows how many sugar packets, Leiko finally seemed satisfied and returned the lid. Madoka looked back at her and said "Leiko, I just want to say I can't thank you enough for how much you've been helping us lately."

"Don't mention it." She said dryly, sipping her coffee and getting a satisfied look on her face as she tasted the sweetness.

"No, really. You've been such a big help, none of this would have been possible without you. If we didn't have you... I don't know what we would have done."

"I'll tell you what you would have done. Kyoko's hair-brained plan to just bust in using force would eventually get through to Sayaka, and therefore Mami, and the three of them would have ended up charging in with a half-baked plan, and getting captured themselves, leaving me stuck fending against witches by myself again." She set down her coffee and pushed her glasses up, looking at Madoka. "Don't thank me so much. I'm not doing any of this because I actually care about Homura. My actions are done for the purpose of self-preservation. If I continue to be useful to this team, no-one will complain about sharing their Grief Seeds with me."

Madoka looked at her, shocked. There was something so dry and resentful about the way she said all of that. As if she did not care about any of them as friends, and instead was just using them. Madoka's eyes sunk away and her fists balled at her sides "I... I wish you wouldn't talk like that. I know you can't really mean it."

Leiko shrugged: "Think what you want." Any normal person should feel at least some level of guilt, but Madoka could see Leiko just was not capable of something like that. Why would she say all that? Was she trying to be mean just for the sake of meanness? Homura could be dry and factual like that as well, but her intentions were always revealed to be pure in the end. Maybe it was the same with Leiko. Her mother said that sometimes when people are insecure they try to cover it up with a thick skin. Maybe that is what Leiko was doing? Madoka hoped. She tried to get to the bottom of it all the same.

"You are a member of our team, though. Even if you don't always get along with the others, and you fight with them sometimes, we all care about each other and that includes you." She made eye contact with Leiko again. "If it were you locked up in that horrible place, we would all fight just as hard to get you back as we are for Homura. It doesn't matter if you are useful to us or not, it's not about that! We're friends!"

Leiko scoffed, leaning back in her chair. "You keep saying _us_ like you are a part of the team in the first place. You're not a Magical Girl. You don't get it, you don't understand what it's like."

"Leiko, why are you being so cold?"

She shrugged: "I'm a realist, that's all. Come on, a team of Magical Girl friends, supporting each other in the fight against evil and the forces of darkness? Sounds romantic when you say it like that, doesn't it? Take a look at Kyoko: you know what becoming a Magical Girl did to her, right? Sayaka, wasting her wish on a boy who didn't give a damn about her. And Mami, forced into it by a life-or-death ultimatum. None of us wanted this. I don't know Homura's story, but look what's happening to her now as her reward for saving people. Like I said, you don't get it. Have you ever even seen a witch before? They're horrible. You're all wrapped up in these ideas of fighting for truth and justice, like this is some big fun magical fantasy adventure. You need a reality check." She grabbed her latte and stood up. "Sorry that this little outing didn't go the way you probably wanted it to. I'm going back now. I have work to do."

Madoka did not know what to say. For the first time that day, she was going to let Leiko have her way and walk out of the door. There was one thing she wanted to know, though. She did not believe in the things Leiko had said, but she wanted to understand why.

It took her a little while to gather her thoughts and decide on what she wanted to say. When she was ready she got up from her seat and chased after her. The french vanilla cappuccino was left behind, still more than half full.

She caught up with Leiko halfway down the block, and grabbed onto her sleeve to get her attention. Leiko turned around with a start, but then pushed her glasses up and put on that dry irritated face she had. Madoka looked at her, slightly out of breath and her face flushed red. "What did you wish for?"

Leiko seemed surprised by the question, but she let her face fade into a more neutral expression as she sighed and looked across the street. "It's a secret. I'll tell you this much, though. Someone did something really horrible to me, and I needed a wish to undo it. I didn't want any of this, I was forced into it." She looked back to Madoka. "That's just the way it is for Magical Girls, though."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"You dummy!" The spear slammed down through the familiar's back, pinning it to the ground. Kyoko's feet landed on the ground softly as she tightened her grip. The familiar wriggled and screamed, trying to pull away from the spear that was impaling it. Kyoko twisted her spear and pulled it through the side of creature's body. It let out one last shriek of pain before falling to the ground where it dissipated in a cloud of black and blue dust. "Heh, too easy." Kyoko grinned.

Sayaka sat on the ground nearby, focusing her SoulGem to heal a wound she had received on her right shoulder. Her lips were shrunken down in an irritated frown.

"You alright?" Kyoko asked, pulling her spear up and balancing it over her shoulder.

"Fine."

Kyoko grinned. "Seriously, I thought you'd have the hang of this by now." she laughed, "Thought the days when I had to babysit you were over." She was just teasing, but Sayaka did not seem to take it that way. She pulled herself up to her feet and stomped past Kyoko with an angry look on her face. "Woah, hey, come on. I was just playing." Kyoko said, following after her. When Sayaka still did not respond she added: "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Just fine." she said again, bluntly. "Come on, we still have a witch to track down." Kyoko frowned and followed after her.

Sayaka had seemed to be in a bad mood all day. Kyoko teased her like that all the time, which usually instigated a good-natured scuffle between the two of them. It never got serious, and usually ended up with the two of them bursting into laughter as their weapons locked in a moment that would otherwise look like a serious battle. So why was Sayaka being so gloomy today? Kyoko just followed after her, trying to figure it out.

"You know..." Kyoko started, "that was a tricky one, even if it was just a familiar. Anyone could have been hit like that. I bet you would have taken it out just like _that_ a second later if I didn't step in."

"Whatever..."

Kyoko sped up her pace and got into Sayaka's way. She put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her, and gave her the warmest smile she could muster. "Come on now, princess, what's the problem? You've been acting like a royal pain all day. It's not like you." Sayaka tried to hold onto her irate demeanor, but she faltered, and her grimace slowly turned into half a smile. Try as she might, she could not resist Kyoko when she got all cutesy on her like that. "Go on, tell Kyoko all about it." she laughed, "I am a psychologist after all."

Sayaka could not help but laugh in return. "I feel sorry for whatever patient ends up relying on _you_ for their mental stability." That sounded more like her normal self.

"Yeah, no kidding, I'm definitely retiring when all this is over. The whole doctor thing is totally cramping my style."

They both shared a laugh together. It was bizarre for Kyoko to be taking on a role like that, and when either of them thought about it they could not help but see the comedy in it. When their laughter dissipated, Sayaka got serious again and sighed: "I don't know, I guess it's just that Leiko has been kind of bothering me lately."

"Pssssh, she bothers everyone. I even saw Mami getting all red-faced and angry with her once."

"Yeah, that's true, but it's more than that, actually. Really, the three of you are working so hard on putting this whole rescue mission together, and I've barely done anything at all to help. I guess it feels like I should be doing more to pull my own weight and help out the team." They both started walking again, side by side. There still was a witch to hunt down, so they could not afford to get distracted for too long.

"It's not like you aren't doing anything." Kyoko assured her. "I guess there hasn't really been a place for you on this mission yet, but think of it this way: while we are busy trying to rescue Homura we aren't getting much actual witch hunting done. Over the last two weeks you've definitely snagged more GriefSeeds than the three of us combined. Hell, I don't think Leiko ever even managed to get one single GriefSeed on her own. She sucks at combat, she even admitted so herself."

"Still, hunting witches is what I would be doing anyway."

"Yeah, and you've been stepping up your game lately while we've been busy, haven't you?" As they reached a break in the alley, Kyoko conferred with her SoulGem and pointed down another path that led to a dead end. "We all got our role on this team. I'm going undercover, Leiko is doing her weird computer thing, and Mami is like the leader, she's also been doing the most to help me study. Your role is to keep us supplied with Grief Seeds. We wouldn't be able to do all this if we had to keep up with witch hunting full-time, y'know?"

They reached the dead-end and looked around. Kyoko again conferred with her Soul Gem, but was not sure where to go. Sayaka pointed up at the fire escape just above them. "Guess the only way to go is up." she said.

Kyoko nodded in agreement. She crouched down and used her spear to push off the ground, jumping up and reaching the climax of her jump with an extended arm. She managed to grab the bottom rung on the ladder, then showed an impressive amount of strength as she pulled herself up with one arm.

Down below Sayaka couldn't help taking advantage of the angle, letting her eyes sneak along Kyoko's toned thighs, and peeking under her girlfriend's skirt as she dangled overhead.

Once at the top, Kyoko undid the latch and slid the ladder down for Sayaka. Sayaka climbed up after her, and they continued up the steel steps, looking towards a rusty chained-up door at the very top.

"You wanna take this one?" Kyoko asked, as they approached the door. "I mean, I don't want you feeling like yer' all useless or anything."

"Alright, shut your mouth." said Sayaka. She signaled for Kyoko to take a couple steps back, then held out her hands. As she pulled power from her SoulGem, her hands became surrounded in a bright rainbow light. From out of the light, two swords formed, and she grabbed onto their hilts. She slashed at the door several times, breaking the chains and leaving a deep cross cut into the steel. She tried to open the door, but it was still locked firmly in place despite the chains being removed. So, she made one more careful slash through the crack near the handle, severing the locking mechanism inside. A firm kick at it's center caused the rusty hinges to scream as the door swung wide open.

"After you." Sayaka said with a grin, gesturing inside the dark doorway.

It was too dark to see anything, even with magically enhanced vision, so Sayaka disenchanted her SoulGem and brought it to its normal gem-shaped form. She then held it out and channeled some power through it to make it glow brightly enough to act as a flashlight. The building had a stale smell to it, and particles of dust lingered all throughout the air.

"We're close." Kyoko said, as they both proceeded with cautious steps. Sayaka shined her ray of blue light in an arc across the room, finding herself inwardly jumping every time an unexpected shadow revealed itself. Their footsteps echoed as they moved forward, this sound was only accompanied by an occasional drip of water which came from somewhere far back in the facility.

Suddenly the tension was broken by a sound, and they both jumped with a start. Kyoko's initial reaction was to ready her spear, instinctively expecting that something was coming after them, but then she realized the sound was music. It was a classical number, with quick piano notes and violins.

"Heh, sorry bout that." Sayaka said, as she pulled her phone from her pocket. She flipped open the screen and answered it. "Hey Madoka, what's up? We're kind of busy now, so..."

"I need to speak with Kyoko." It was not Madoka afterall, and Sayaka instantly recognised Leiko's sour voice.

Sayaka's own voice got a bit rougher. "Huh? Oh, sure. Hang on a sec." She then held the phone out to Kyoko and smiled. "It's for you."

Kyoko took the phone. "Ya _aaalo_." Sayaka could hear Leiko's voice on the other side, but the volume was too low for her to make out what she was saying. Kyoko nodded, occasionally saying things like "Uh huh," "Okay," "Really?" When Leiko was done, Kyoko clicked her teeth and flipped the phone closed, then handed it back to Sayaka.

"What's up?" Sayaka asked.

"Turns out little Miss Sunshine is causing trouble again." At first Sayaka thought Kyoko was referring to Leiko, but then realized she was actually talking about Homura. "Apparently she got pissed off for some reason, threatened some of the guards, and then tore up her room. Anyway, Dr. Kay has an extra appointment with her, for later tonight. Leiko wants me to come back so we can go over some things, and prep me for the meeting... I guess." She sighed and looked into the darkness of the abandoned warehouse. "Think you can handle this one on your own?"

"Yeah, I should be fine."

"Alright, just be careful. Okay? Don't go getting all reckless on me." And with that, she turned to go back towards the door which they had managed to get only a few steps away from. Once outside, she looked back at Sayaka to give her a goodbye, but stopped when she noticed Sayaka was staring at her with a deep expression on her face. "What?" Kyoko asked.

"Hm? OH... nothing." Sayaka said, scratching the back of her head. "Well... I was just thinking." She looked back to her. "I was thinking you changed a lot over the last couple of months. In a good way." She stepped forward to be closer with her, and their hands ended up locking together. "The same goes for you. Don't be reckless while you're in there, they might just be ordinary humans, but that doesn't mean they're not dangerous."

Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Pssssh, don't worry, I'll be fine." When her eyes rolled back around and met Sayaka's, she saw that Sayaka was blushing and looking at her very deeply. _Is now really the time for this?_ Kyoko thought. All the same, her hands tightened around Sayaka's and pulled her in closer.

Their lips connected for one quick kiss before separating only slightly. They could feel the other's breath upon their faces, and after a moment Kyoko came forward and locked lips with her again, more permanently this time.

* * *

Mami came through the front door with a paper bag full of groceries cradled in her arm. "I'm back!" she announced, and turned into the living room. Both Madoka and Leiko were there, staring at the computer screen, with Leiko clicking away. "Oh Madoka, I didn't know you would be here." She smiled, but it quickly faded away when she saw the look of concern on her face.

Leiko stopped typing and turned away from the computer. "We got a problem." she said.

"Oh..." Mami came in and set the bag down on the glass table that sat between the couch and TV set, just behind the computer terminal. "What happened?"

"Homura had another outburst. They aren't being too friendly about it this time." Leiko stated factually. "They are planning to do more than just taking away her TV set this time. I'm working on damage control as we speak."

"Is she alright?" Mami asked, coming forth to look at the computer screen, but the symbols that flew by were as alien to her as they were to Madoka.

"For now." Leiko said. "They didn't gas her this time, at least, but they have... other plans."

"Gas her?" Madoka asked. "What does that mean?" Mami shot Leiko a scolding look, to which Leiko just shrugged and turned back to the computer and continued typing. "Mami?" Madoka asked her directly, "What does that mean?"

Mami sighed and put on an apologetic face, knowing she would just have to come clean now. "I'm sorry Madoka, but there are a few things we have been keeping from you. We just thought it would be better not to worry you too much."

The concern in Madoka's eyes asked for her to continue.

"When Homura doesn't cooperate with them, they have a way to fill the room with sleeping gas. There are also times when they have used tasers and tranquilizers to get her under control." Mami looked guilty as she stated these facts. She didn't want to tell her about it, but she could not outright lie to her face when she was being directly confronted in this manner.

Madoka could see it in her face that there was more. Her eyes shifted away. She was upset that her friends had been keeping things like this from her, but more upset to find out that Homura actually has been getting hurt while she was in there. "What else aren't you telling me?" Mami was not sure how to respond. She knew how close Madoka was to Homura, and how upsetting it would be for her to find out about everything else they had done. "Just be honest with me!" Madoka was not exactly yelling, but her voice raised to a higher tone than Mami was used to hearing from the pinkette.

"Well... Leiko, why don't you tell her? You're the one with more information on this."

"Mami covered most of the things they have already done." Leiko spoke factually, "What's more concerning are the things they plan to do. Specifically, they want to start introducing a mood-altering drug into her food and water." Leiko moved her hand to the computer terminal and used her magic, causing some of those rays of light to shoot from her fingertips and into the terminal. The computer screen changed to something that Madoka and Mami could actually understand. In the top-left corner there was a picture of a blue pill, and the rest of the screen was filled with text. The document was titled 'Glazadrine'.

"It's a new drug." Leiko explained, "It has several specific effects, but the bottom line is it's meant to make the user more complacent. One effect is that the user's body can not produce adrenaline, which naturally makes them more docile. It puts their mind into a euphoric, almost dreamlike, state, which will leave them fully functional but less in touch with reality and therefore more accepting of things they would otherwise have a problem with. It has also been shown to be effective as a truth serum. On top of that, it is highly addictive. Basically, with or without the drug's actual effects, they'll have Homura wrapped around their fingers simply by getting her hooked on this stuff. Then, all they have to do is threaten to withhold her dosages if she isn't complying."

Madoka's face had gone pale at the explanation. Mami looked away, frowning with guilt. Leiko seemed rather indifferent, though she turned to Madoka and said: "Don't worry, they haven't started using it yet, but there has been a lot of talk going back and forth in their circles. I'm doing my best to intercept the emails related to this and steer the conversations in a direction away from using the drug, but I have to be careful with that. If I push too hard, and make too many people say things they didn't actually say, eventually someone will notice the communications are being tampered with. With forging Dr. Sakura's credentials and getting her inside, it was easy because there was only a few people whom the issue concerned, and there wouldn't be too much argument about something like that one way or the other. With a more controversial topic like this, it's trickier."

"Can't we have Kyoko talk them out of it?" Madoka asked, "She's Homura's psychologist, surely they will listen to her if she says it's a bad idea."

"That wouldn't be a bad idea, except the 'Dr. Sakura' alias doesn't really have all that much authority. Besides, it would be risky; what if someone else who's in the psychology field wishes to discuss it with her. She has done well so far, but I don't see the charade holding out if she falls under too much scrutiny."

Then all their heads turned as they heard the front door open. "I'm back!" Kyoko announced. She turned the corner into the living room. "Hey, the gang's all here."

"Yes. How did the witch hunt go?" Mami asked.

"We were hot on its trail when I got the call. Sayaka stayed behind to finish things off." She winked at Mami. "She's actually getting pretty good." Mami was originally Sayaka's 'trainer' when it came to the world of Magical Girls. Lately, since Kyoko and Sayaka had gotten so close, Kyoko ended up spending more time working with her than Mami. They both agreed that Sayaka had come exceptionally far regarding her abilities in just those few months she had been a Magical Girl.

"What took so long?" Leiko asked, flatly. "I called nearly an hour ago."

"Huh? Oh, I dunno, there was a delay I guess." She blushed and scratched the side of her neck. "Ye _eaaaah_... a delay... Anyway, what's the plan?"

"We haven't got too far with that yet." said Mami. "I actually just made it back home myself."

"First of all, you need to tell Homura to start being more cooperative with them." said Leiko.

Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Yeah, good luck with that."

Leiko gave her a raised eyebrow. "Seriously, she might have already pushed things too far. If they start dosing her with Galazadrin it is going to mean a whole new set of problems."

"Isn't there any way to actually get her out?" Madoka asked.

"Security's pretty tight." Kyoko said. "I'll keep looking around while I'm in there, but so far even busting her out by force seems like difficult to pull off." She then looked between Mami and Leiko. "Are we still against that plan?"

"We'll keep that as a last resort." said Mami "Surely we can come up with something better though… Leiko, have you thought of anything?"

Leiko shrugged. "I've had a few ideas, but I must admit none of them were very good."

"What if…" Madoka started, "What if you could tamper with their communications, and convince them to transfer her somewhere else? That way you can go rescue her once she is actually out of the building… or, is that a bad idea?"

"I don't see how I could possibly pull that off." Leiko admitted. "But yeah, things would be way easier if she wasn't behind so many layers of solid steel doors."

"Wait…" said Kyoko, "What if there was some other reason to move her?" They all looked at her.

"What do you mean?" asked Mami.

"I'm saying like… ah, I don't know. Look, she is pretty valuable to them right? So what if her life was in danger, like from an illness, and she needed to be taken to a hospital or something like that?"

"They would just send the doctors to her." Leiko said. "Honestly, haven't you noticed that every single person in that building, including you, has the word 'doctor' in their name?"

"Watch it, chick…" Kyoko said, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms.

"I think we are on the right track, though." said Mami. "As long as she is in that building getting her out will be difficult… well, we can talk about this more later. I don't think we are planning to break her out tonight, so..." She walked over to the coffee table and sat down. "For now…" she said, reaching under the table. She produced a big stack of books and slammed them down on the table. "For now, Kyoko needs to get ready for her appointment!"

Kyoko flinched back at the sight of the books, then let out a long sigh. This was the part she hated the most.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Cerebellum." Mami said, holding up a flashcard with the word printed on it in bold letters. The side facing Mami held the definition.

"Ah… alright, cerebellum." Kyoko had her arms folded and a pocky stick hanging from her lips. Her eyes were shut tight with a deep look of concentration on her face. "Cerebellum…" she played with the word, "Cer-e-bell-um."

Madoka noticed Leiko had turned away from her computer and was looking at the two of them with a raised eyebrow. ' _Please don't say anything…'_ Madoka thought.

It was in vain though, because not a moment later Leiko said: "It's not like we are asking you to spell the word, so why do you keep sounding it out?"

"Hey! Shut the hell up! It helps me think, okay?" Kyoko had abandoned her meditative stance and was now leaning over the table with a fist raised at Leiko's general direction.

Mami cleared her throat and moved the card into Kyoko's field of vision to draw her attention back. "Cerebellum." she repeated.

"Oh, right…" Kyoko fell back into her meditation posture. "Cerebellum…" Her eyes closed tighter and her face made a deep scowl as if she was in pain. " _Cerebellum_ … it's like, something with the brain?"

That answer was greeted by some mock praise by Leiko, as she started clapping her hands slowly. "Well, technically you're not wrong," she said sarcastically, "but if you give them an answer like that, they will probably lock you up with or without knowing you're a Magical Girl, just from thinking you're mentally deficient."

"This isn't easy, alright? I'm trying!"

"Cerebellum." Leiko started, "It's derived from a Latin word meaning 'small brain'. It's a section of the brain which, in vertebrates, is located at the back of the skull. Its main function is to co-ordinate and regulate muscle activity. What is so hard about remembering that?"

"Look, this is pointless anyway! It's not like someone is going to come up to me and say 'Oh, Doctor Sakura, we were just discussing cerebellums, what are your thoughts on this totally _random topic_!'"

Mami sighed and held up another card, patiently stating the word that was written on it: "Deoxyribonucleic Acid"

Kyoko grimaced as she folded her arms and closed her eyes. "De-deo-deoxyri… AH! Is that even a word?" she shouted, slamming her hands down on the table. "This is bullshit!"

Mami sighed again, setting the card down. "Maybe we should take a break? I'll make some tea." And with that, she got up and went for the kitchen.

Kyoko noticed the smile that was touching Leiko's face, although she was trying to feign her attention over to the computer screen. "If you say one word…"

"Hm? I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about." Leiko said it with a grin.

* * *

Homura had decided to clean up the apartment before Kyoko (or, "Dr. Sakura") arrived. They had provided her with a broom and a vacuum cleaner in the small storage closet, as well as other cleaning supplies. She had not made much use of these provisions over the two and a half weeks she has been here. She usually did not need to, because someone would come in and clean whenever she was out of the apartment and in one of their little test rooms.

She swept up the glass from the TV and the broken plates, and dumped it all into a trash bag. She also gathered up the broken chair legs, as well as all the other pieces of debris in the room, including the cameras, then went to the kitchen where her trash disposal was. It was a drawer which slid out from under the countertop. If she put something inside and then closed it, whatever was inside would disappear. If she listened closely she could hear banging from whatever she had put there being dropped down to who-knows-where.

She had played with the idea of stopping time and tearing it apart to see if she could go down there herself as a means of escape. It looked too small for her to actually fit inside, however, so she never tried it. She doubted her enemy would make an oversight like that anyway. Besides that, she knew it would probably be a tight fit either way, and the idea of getting stuck in some dark metal tube deep underground was enough to shake even her resolve.

She was already in the cleaning mood, and did not have anything else to do since she smashed up most of the things that were there for her entertainment, so she pulled out the window cleaner and started wiping down the tables and countertops. She did not know why she was bothering with all this. Maybe she just didn't want Kyoko to worry about her too much, and end up relaying any of her concerns to Madoka, or maybe it was just out of boredom. When she was all done, though, the apartment didn't look half bad. Aside from the smashed TV set, the hole she had cut into the couch, and the wires hanging on the walls from where the cameras were once stationed; it was almost like nothing had ever happened.

With nothing else to do, she laid down on the couch and stared at the ceiling for a while. Eventually, the intercom buzzed on: Dr. Mono was back. "Homura, Dr. Sakura has arrived, she will be coming in shortly."

"Very well…" Homura said, trying to sound at least a little discontented. She was excited to see Kyoko, of course, but she did not want to seem _too_ excited. She got up from the couch and went to stand by the steel door. She leaned her back against the wall and waited. After a few minutes the door let out one of its beeps and hisses as it slid open, revealing Kyoko. She was wearing a white lab coat and glasses, as well as appearing a bit taller and older than she actually was. That enchantment magic of hers was certainly a handy trick, Homura thought.

"Hello Miss Akemi, it's good to see you again." Kyoko said bowing her head very slightly.

"Yeah, same." Homura said with a level of disinterest. Her arms were folded as she leaned against the wall. She always had a certain darkness to her eyes, but her lips managed to raise into a soft smile in spite of it. "Would you like to sit down?" she asked as she gestured over to the table on the other side of the room.

"Yes, thank you." As they walked over to the table Kyoko took a look around the apartment. She noted the broken TV set and the lack of cameras, but otherwise the apartment was fairly clean. "They told me what happened... I was expecting this place to look a lot worse."

"I cleaned." Homura said plainly, as she took a seat.

"I see." Kyoko sat down across from her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She folded her arms and looked towards the wall; she did not need any acting to show how clearly pissed off she was. "Those bastards. They tried to leash me up like a stray dog. They are lucky I didn't decide to kill them." She shrugged. "They were just following orders, so I let them go. Still, I was upset so I smashed the room up a bit. I started with the cameras, but turns out they have had even more cameras hidden here this whole time. Go figure." She added that last part as a warning to Kyoko, so she would know they can still see her. She seemed to understand.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't hurt anyone." Kyoko spoke cleanly, fully taking on the Dr. Sakura persona. Homura could honestly say she was quite impressed by how well Kyoko was doing. "I fully understand why something like that would upset you, but you should also consider the consequences of your actions. Did tearing your room apart really help anything?"

Homura clicked her teeth and turned away. "The hell do you know." It was hard to tell if it was an act or not.

"I suppose I don't really know what it's like to be held against my will somewhere, having done nothing wrong. I imagine it would make anyone angry. You are here though, and there's no way of changing it. I don't know the specifics of what they want from you - that's not my field - but it seems they are planning to keep you here for a while. Do you think it would be better to just work with them for now? They might treat you better if you did." Kyoko looked at her very intensely, _'I'm trying to tell you something, please pick it up.',_ she thought. Dr. Sakura technically should not know about Glazadrine and all the other information Leiko had hacked out of their systems, so she had to be careful with her words. She had to warn Homura somehow, though. Leiko and Mami also asked her to get the point across to Homura that she needs to start cooperating with them for now, to keep herself out of danger. She also figured that saying something like that would make her " _employers"_ happy.

"Let me explain something…" Homura said, leaning over the table and showing one of her dark, threatening facial expressions, "No-one treats me like an animal. I'll do their little tests, if I _feel_ like it, but I am no-one's dog. If they try something like they did this morning again I'm really going to kill someone." She sat back and looked up as if she were talking to the ceiling "Got that, you assholes? I know you're listening, so there's your warning. No collars and no leashes! Understand?" She sat back again with folded arms and looked at Kyoko, allowing her to respond.

"I agree with you one hundred percent. What they tried to do this morning is inexcusable. I will talk to them about it for you, and I'm sure things can be worked out peacefully. But however you might feel, there is no need for those kinds of threats. Look, I want to help you. Now that you have me, I can work with them, and help them and you find some common ground."

"You want to help _me_?" Homura scoffed, "Don't give me that, they're the ones paying you to be here. Don't act like your loyalties aren't actually to them."

Dr. Sakura nodded. "It's true, this is my job, and I am being paid, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you, and it doesn't mean I can't help you. I think I can, if you'll let me." Kyoko grinned: _'Hell yeah, I'm heading to Hollywood when this over. This is kinda fun.'._

They both ended up smiling at each other, and that smile was between Homura and Kyoko, not Homura and Dr. Sakura. "Here I am being rude…" Homura sighed, "I haven't offered you anything to drink, would you like some tea?"

"Thank you, that would be nice." Kyoko answered. Homura transformed into her Magical Girl attire and set the gears spinning on her shield, stopping time. She wanted to get a few private words in with Kyoko, and the best way to do that would be to pull her into her time flow. The problem with that, however, is her enemy would be able to tell it happened. One idea she had before was to take Dr. Sakura hostage, maybe hold a knife to her throat and demand to be let out. It would require some acting on both of their parts, but it would be a good excuse for stopping time with her so they could chat.

She got the tea from the refrigerator and poured it into a glass. She then opened the utensils drawer and took a moment to consider the knife that was in there. She ended up hiding it inside her sleeve. She went back to the table and set the tea down in front of Kyoko, and resumed time.

To Kyoko it looked like she instantly vanished from the seat across from her before reappearing beside her with a cup of tea. Kyoko had to fake her surprise a little. She then laughed and adjusted her glasses. As Dr. Sakura, she said: "I don't think I'll ever get used to that." As Kyoko, she thought: _'quit showing off, idiot.'._

"So…" Kyoko said, taking a sip from the glass as Homura sat down, "Aside from the incident this morning, is there anything else that has been troubling you lately?"

"You mean aside from being locked in a basement, being kept away from my friends, and forced to do these idiotic tests every other day? Yeah everything is great."

Dr. Sakura sighed. "You do seem a bit more on edge today than last time we spoke."

Homura thought about it for a moment and said: "You know that cat picture I gave you? You want to know who I really drew it for?" Homura asked. "It was for my girlfriend. I've been thinking about her a lot lately. Wondering what she must be thinking about me suddenly disappearing. I know she's worried, I just hope she isn't taking it too hard… I really miss her."

"I'm sure she is doing just fine." Kyoko said, and Homura smiled a bit at the confirmation Madoka was doing ok. "Who knows, maybe you will get to see her again. Again, I don't know what their plans are for you here, but I imagine they will eventually start giving you at least some freedom again. If you start working with them, that is…"

"Yeah, maybe…" Homura said, though Kyoko's words did not seem to do much to reassure her on that end. "Kay, listen, I kind of like you, so I do feel bad for what I'm about to do…" She stood up and set the gears spinning on her shield. "Please don't be too mad at me for this."

* * *

Homura held her hand over Kyoko's to keep her in the time flow. Kyoko looked around in her sheepish way, fully dropping the persona of Kay Sakura, knowing she was no longer being watched. "Alright, what are you planning?" Kyoko asked, noting the mischievous look in Homura's eyes.

"Subject One is breaking out." Homura explained. Then she dropped the knife out of her sleeve, and as it hit the table it became frozen in time with the hilt touching down but the blade still slightly in the air. "Feel like playing hostage?"

"Idiot, that's not going to work. Which do you think they are more okay with losing? Some random psychologist, or a one-of-a-kind lab rat with magical powers? If something like that could sway them I doubt they would'a let me here in the first place."

"You're right, I'm not planning on this actually working, but that's not the point. I did this so that I would be able to actually talk to you without having to speak in code words. When we are done chatting I'm going to hold a knife to your throat in front of a camera for a few minutes, just so they don't start questioning you too much on why I pulled you into my time flow in the first place."

"Geez, that seems like a lot to go through." she sighed. "Well, anyway, I'm glad I can talk to you, because there's something I need to warn you about. I should explain first that the reason I managed to make it here in the first place is because of that Leiko chick. She has some kind of weird ass magic that lets her hack into computers or something, so she forged all of Dr. Sakura's credentials and got me inside."

"Hm, so that's how you did it." Homura had not been able to so much as guess at how they pulled it off before, so she was glad to finally have an explanation.

"Yeah, anyway, she has been keeping up with all the logs related to 'Test Subject One', and there's something you should know about. Apparently, your captors are planning to start drugging you with this stuff called… Gala… eh, Gala-something… anyway, it's bad stuff. Leiko says if they start dosing you with that shit you'll become all like zombified and whatnot, and start doing everything they tell you to. She has been messing with their communications to stop them from using it, but she says if you keep smashing stuff up and causing problems they are going to end up using it anyway."

"I see…" Homura seemed to think on this for a little while. "I suppose holding a knife to my psychologist's throat will count as 'causing problems'?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Still, now that you are in my timeflow, they are going to want to know why I did it. So, it might be a good idea to continue with my plan, rather than putting you in a position where they could catch you telling lies."

"Maybe… Actually, this might be a good chance to show how valuable Dr. Sakura is. See, while I'm standing there with a knife to my throat, I can like, talk you down. See? Then, if you start cooperating with them a little more they might think the drug isn't necessary anymore. You know, since they have my expertise in psychology to keep you cool." She grinned. "I dunno, it might end up helping your situation in the end."

"Speaking of my situation, what is your plan for actually getting me out of here?"

"Don't really have one yet." Kyoko admitted, "There's like five layers of these steel doors between you and freedom, not to mention an elevator that I'm sure they'll have the ability to shut down. So as long as you are in here, there's not really much we can do. The best idea we could come up with is if we could find some way to get them to move you out of the building. Leiko would be able to keep track of when and where you are being transported to. Then, while you are in-transit, we could come steal you away… We have no idea how to make any of that happen, though."

"Hm…" Homura got that pondering look on her face again. "You say that Leiko will know if I'm being moved?"

"Yeah, that's what she says."

"I might be able to come up with something, then. Just tell her to keep her eyes open, I think I might have an idea."

"An idea you say? Do tell." Kyoko grinned.

"I'm still working on it… But I'm thinking I might have another vision soon, like the one that told me about Walpurgis Night." Kyoko knew that the real reason Homura knew about Walpurgis Night is because of her time traveling capabilities, but she thought she understood what Homura meant. Homura must have told them that she had a vision of the future or something, to explain her knowledge. "Just make sure you are ready if they do end up moving me… I don't know if it's going to work, but we can't miss that chance."

"Yeah, don't worry about that." Kyoko assured her, "We'll be ready."

They shared a moment, each of them feeling fervorous since actual escape plans were finally being discussed. Homura broke the moment when she asked: "How's Madoka been through all of this?"

"She's staying strong." Kyoko said, giving her a reassuring smile, "She misses you, of course, but she's handling it well... When I handed her that cat picture she practically broke down into tears, but it was a joyful sort of teariness, you know?"

Homura was not the kind of person to show tears herself, but Kyoko imagined that what she had just said brought her close. "Well…" Homura finally said, with a soft voice, "Are you ready?"

Kyoko sighed. "Yeah, let's do this."

Homura led her over to the plant in the back corner of the room that had a camera hidden in it, then got her into a hold that pinned one arm at her side, and pulled the other into an awkward position with the arm that held a knife to her throat. "When you see Madoka again, tell her not to worry… I'll be home soon."

"Hm, alright, I got you. By the way, when we do get you out, I'm going to have to kick your ass as payback for putting me in this kind of situation. Alright?"

"Hm, fine, you can try." Neither of them were really in the laughing mood but they both grinned slightly. "Alright… get ready." They both got back into character before Homura resumed time.

* * *

Dr. Endou (the man Homura knew as Dr. Mono), sat in his office watching from the plant camera in Subject One's room. He had the screen of his monitor tilted so that Dr. Kaiji (the owner of the softer toned voice which Homura would recognise over the intercom) could see.

 _"Got that, you bastards? I know you're listening!"_ they heard Homura say.

"You see?" Endou said, "She has given us a verbal warning that she plans to harm our employees. What more do you need?"

Dr. Kaiji shook his head. "She hasn't actually harmed anyone yet, except for those two guards she shot in the leg. Even that was purposefully non-fatal, though. Sorry, but there just hasn't been enough to support giving her mood altering drugs yet."

"So what then? Do we wait until she actually does do serious harm to someone? It'll be too late by then, Kaiji."

They listened to Dr. Sakura talk to Homura, _"...and I think I can help you, if you'll let me."_

Kaiji noted the positive change in Homura's demeanor: _"Here I am being rude. Would you like something to drink?"_

"See that?" he said to Dr. Endou, "This psychologist seems to be able to get through to her. I think we should give her a chance. If we could just get Homura to understand what good her powers could do for the world, maybe we could get her to start cooperating with us."

Endou did not seem to want to respond to that, and instead said: "We should tell her not to transform while Sakura is in there." Homura disappeared and reappeared with a cup of tea. "It makes me nervous."

"I think she just likes showing off her power. She did the same thing last time."

"I do find it odd that Sakura was able to get on good terms with her so easily. Homura has been nothing but cold and violent towards the rest of us."

"Dr. Sakura isn't the one holding her against her will." Kaiji explained. "There is a big difference there, you know. Sakura is also the only person who has been talking to her like an actual human being since we brought her here. I think we just need to adjust our treatment of Subject One, and maybe we can get through to her."

 _"Kay, listen, I kind of like you, so I do feel bad for what I'm about to do…"_ Endou and Kaiji were both broken away from their conversation as they looked to the screen, feeling that something bad was about to happen. _"Please don't be too mad at me for this."_

The next thing they knew Sakura's face was right in front of the camera, Homura having one dark eye peeking out from behind the psychologist's shoulder. They could see the knife in her hand, firmly pressed against Dr. Sakura's throat.

"Shit!" Kaiji shouted as he jumped up. Endou reached for the intercom. "Wait." Kaiji said to him, holding out a hand. "Let me… She… doesn't like either of us, but I think she dislikes me just a little less."

"Alright." Endou said, "I think this proves my point, though. Let's just hope Dr. Sakura doesn't end up losing her life over this."

* * *

"Homura," came the softer toned voice from over the intercom, "Please take a moment and think this through, you don't want to do something you'll regret."

"Already thought it through." Homura said, her eye staring intensely into the potted plant, "And here's what I'm thinking: open that metal door at the front of my room, and every other door behind it, or this knife is cutting right through Dr. Sakura's jugular."

"We can't do that, Homura." said the voice, "Harming Dr. Sakura won't benefit you in any way, so please just stop this."

"You think I'm not serious!" she shouted, tightening her grip on the knife and pushing it into Kyoko's flesh to show just how serious she was.

' _Geezus! Not so hard!',_ Kyoko thought. Then, in her Dr. Sakura persona she said: "Homura, it's alright, just don't do anything rash. I know you don't want to hurt anyone."

"You're right," Homura said, "I really don't want to hurt you, but it's really up to them if anything happens or not." Then, addressing the camera: "You know what I want. If that door isn't open by the time Kay and I walk over there, then it's over for her." She then started pulling Kyoko towards the front door.

"Okay, just relax. Everything's okay." Kyoko said as she was pushed to the other side of the room, "Listen, can you lower the knife just a little? There could be an accident." She was doing pretty well acting as someone who potentially had their life in danger and was calmly trying to talk her attacker down. Although, Homura ignored her request.

"Alright we're here." Homura shouted up to the ceiling, "Open the door!"

There was a long silence. Homura was getting ready to make the demand again, but the intercom buzzed on first: "We can't do that. Please just let her go and we will forget this happened." Then: "You have ten seconds before we start the gas."

"No!" Kyoko shouted, "Don't do that! Just let me talk to her!"

The intercom buzzed on again, and it was the voice Kyoko recognized as Dr. Endou, but Homura only knew him as Dr. Mono. "Drop the knife, Homura." he said patiently, "This has gone far enough." Kyoko felt Homura's grip on her tighten. She got the impression that the sudden tension wasn't just acting. She _really_ didn't like that guy.

"Homura, don't pay attention to them, just talk to me." Kyoko said. Then, to the other doctors: "Don't turn on the gas, just let me to talk to her."

"There's nothing to talk about, I'm getting out of here!" Homura said.

"Listen, I know you don't want to be here, but this isn't the way to go about it." Kyoko spoke calmly, "You want to go home, and see your friends, I get it. I don't blame you, hell I'd probably try something like this too if I were in your shoes. They are not going to open the door, though, so it's pointless. Why don't we just go back to the table and continue our meeting? Did you draw anything new since I was last here? Why don't we go look at that?"

Kyoko felt the knife tighten against her throat and she thought: ' _Come on Homura! This is the part where you chill out and start apologizing!'_ Homura did not seem to have any plans of doing that, however. Kyoko realized that although Homura said she was not expecting to be able to escape like this, part of her must have been clinging to a hope that it _would_ work out that way. She has not had any other means of escape, and although her "hostage" was an imposter, she knew that her enemy did not know that. Therefore, using her psychologist as a bargaining chip was not entirely an act. Right now, Homura's goal actually was to escape.

"Open it now!" Homura screamed with a cracked voice. "Do it now! Last chance or she's dead!" The despair was clear in her voice, and as Kyoko felt the knife dig deeper into her throat she legitimately started to fear for her own safety. She could feel Homura's heavy breaths as she was locked in her grip; was she crying?

"Homura, please, we're friends right? We said we would be friends." Kyoko was scared to the point of tears herself now. How well did she really know Homura? They were friends on the outside, but only for a few months, and she knew it was not beyond Homura to use others as a means to an end with her own plans. She could be cold, manipulative, ruthless… _insane_... Madoka saw it too; she knew all about Homura's dark side, and Kyoko had overheard her confessing this to Sayaka one night.

It was early in Madoka's relationship with Homura, and Sayaka had started the conversation by expressing some concerns to her childhood friend. Madoka did not completely disagree with Sayaka, and she admitted that she was right about some of the points she was making about Homura. Madoka acknowledged the darkness that was in her, but had followed up by saying something like: "She's been through a lot; I think terrible things have happened to her. Things she won't even tell me about. I think it caused her to close her heart in a lot of ways, so it's true that she can be callous. She's getting better though, and I think I can help her."

Homura's grip tightened on the knife, and Kyoko could feel it move ever so slightly to the side. The surface of her skin parted, and thin ribbons of blood trickled out from under the blade's edge. The muscles of Homura's arm were tense; it was almost as if she were struggling to stop herself.

Kyoko spoke as Kyoko, and not as Dr. Sakura: _"Homura… don't…"_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Kyoko didn't know what to do. A simple knife wound could not actually hurt her, since she was a Magical Girl and could just heal herself. Of course, healing herself meant she would be displaying her powers for everyone to see, and she would end up locked up down here right alongside Homura. She hoped that Homura was just doing a REALLY good job at acting, but this had suddenly seemed to be getting way too real.

 _"Come... on... Homu...ra."_ Kyoko croaked out. The knife's blade was pushing into her neck hard enough to choke her. _"Stop..."_

Homura's arm was tense. She could not go any further than she already had without actually slashing Kyoko's throat; if they were going to open it they would have by now. _Still_ , Homura thought desperately, _maybe just a little longer_. Part of her knew they would not open it no matter what, but there was that vague hope.

She hated it here, being locked up, unable to leave. Being away from Madoka; the girl who she had sacrificed so much for. The girl she had finally managed to save, but was still being kept away from. It was not fair! She looked to the future, and saw herself still being locked up in here, spending day after day pacing around, trapped in her own thoughts. She couldn't take it! She had to get out! No matter what it took, she needed to get out of here!

She screamed, and her arm slashed to the side.

* * *

"Crap, what do we do?" Kaiji asked. He was leaning over the computer terminal as if he thought he could actually jump through the screen and into the room they were watching. The camera they were watching through was at the other side of the room. Endou zoomed it in, which distorted the picture a bit but was still a better view.

"It's too late for the gas." Endou said, "If we had started drugging her days ago this whole thing could have been avoided." He shook his head. "I don't understand why our superiors have been so resistant to the idea."

Kaiji looked at him with an accusing expression. "She's a fourteen year old girl!"

"She's dangerous. Am I the only one who sees that?" His face was cold as stone as he looked at Dr. Kaiji.

Kaiji stared back at Endou with intensity in his eyes, as if he could not believe what he was hearing. He respected Dr. Endou professionally, but something about his treatment and attitude towards Homura just rubbed Kaiji the wrong way. She was a human being!

He looked back at the screen. The situation was getting intense. It looked as if Homura really were going to kill the poor woman after all. He could see the blood dripping down from Kay's neck, and staining her shirt. He saw the distant psychotic look in Homura's eyes, and the way her arm tensed, getting ready to strike. He could hear Kay's last choked plea for mercy.

"Damn it!" Kaiji screamed, "Let's just open the door!" His hand moved for the keyboard.

Endou reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Stop that." he said in a low dark tone.

"She's going to kill her!"

"Dr. Sakura knew the risks when she took this assignment. Are you really suggesting we just let our test subject go?"

"If we don't she's going to-"

Both of their heads shot back to the screen when they heard a loud scream from the young girl they had been holding captive.

Her arm slashed to the side, and Dr. Sakura fell to the floor, landing on her hands and knees. Kaiji watched with horror; they couldn't see the knife from this angle, nor could they see Dr. Sakura's face, or her neck - but she was on her hands and knees, staring at the ground. Her back rose and fell with the motion of heavy breathing.

"Pan the camera out!" Kaiji said, but Endou was already doing it.

* * *

Homura fell against the wall, burying her face into her arms. She slowly lowered herself to the ground, crying.

"Damn it!" She screamed, "You fucking bastards!" Kyoko was on the ground nearby, coughing and holding onto her wounded neck. "You just had to open the damn door!"

Kyoko brought herself back to a sitting position on her knees, and looked at the palm of her hand. There was blood smeared on it, but she could tell the cut was not too deep. Homura managed to push her away without doing any real damage. Kyoko crawled over to her and whispered her name: "Homura…"

Homura had herself curled up into a ball, sobbing heavily into her arms. Kyoko cautiously put a soft hand on her shoulder. Then, she heard a beep, as the metal door hissed and slid open. The backup door directly behind it remained shut. The intercom clicked on and Dr. Endou's voice came through. _"Dr. Sakura, you may leave now."_

"No," She said in response, "It's okay."

The intercom clicked on again: _"We would like it if you'd obey this order and leave the room immediately."_

"Shut the hell up!" she screamed up at the ceiling, not thinking about what character she was suppose to be playing. "I'm not leaving her when she's like this!" She put her arms around Homura and rocked her back and forth. "It's okay, don't pay any attention to them." she said soothingly.

"I'm sorry." Homura whispered in a cracked voice, "I hurt you. I'm so sorry."

"Sssshhh, it's alright, girl. Like I said, if I was in your spot I would have tried something just as crazy. Besides, I'm not hurt, not really, so don't worry about it." She actually could feel a throbbing from the wound, and warm blood trickling down her neck, but she did not think it was too serious.

"I was… I was gonna…" Homura's voice was shaking. "I almost… did it." Kyoko felt Homura's body heave as the confession caused a fresh round of sobbing to escape her. "I… just… I want to go home!"

"Sssshhhh, I know, I know. It's alright, you didn't do anything…" Then Kyoko lowered her voice as much as she could and whispered directly into Homura's ear: "Keep your _soul_ pure." Kyoko hadn't brought in a fresh GriefSeed for her this time around, since she got one just a few days ago, but she still worried about the kind of state Homura's current mental condition might put her SoulGem into.

After allowing Kyoko to hold her for a while longer, Homura started to shake her away. "I'm okay…" she whispered, and Kyoko let go. Homura turned around, and they looked at each other for a while. Homura had wet streaks running down her face, and Kyoko reached her hand over to wipe some of it away.

She understood Homura's pain, for she had felt that kind of grief herself at one point. When she lost her family, she did not have anyone to turn to, no-one to comfort her or make her feel like things were okay. She was all alone, and it caused her to turn into someone who she couldn't recognize in the mirror anymore; someone who she despised. Sayaka had helped her out of that, and now Homura needed Madoka to be here, to be that person for her. Madoka wasn't here though, so Kyoko decided she would have to do her best as a replacement.

Homura looked guiltily at the wound that was slashed across Kyoko's neck. It was not deep enough to be immediately threatening, but it had to be treated. "Thank you… Kyo… eh, Kay…" She stood up. "Here, let me get something for that." She then went into the bathroom to look for the first aid kit that her enemy had provided her with. Then they went back to the table in the living room, and Homura sat in a chair next to Kyoko.

She started off by taking a sanitized towelette out of the first aid kit and wiping Kyoko's wound down with it. Then she found a bandage and some gauze. She looked over a few of the tubes of ointment in the kit, and found a disinfectant. She poured it over the gauze, and held it against Kyoko's neck as she started wrapping a bandage around.

"What I did is unforgivable." The cool _matter-of-fact_ way she said it sounded more like her normal self, and it made Kyoko feel just a little better. "I apologize for what I tried to do. I… don't know what I was thinking."

"I told you it's alright." Kyoko grinned, "Just don't do anything like that again, okay?"

Homura looked at her with a serious expression as she finished wrapping the bandage around her neck, and nodded once. The guilt she was feeling was clear on her face.

"Why don't we talk about something a little more pleasant?" Kyoko said, "Have you drawn any more pictures?"

Homura nodded, then she stood up and went to a chest of drawers on the other side of the room. Inside the chest there were mostly puzzles, and some board games. She didn't understand why they had provided her with the board games, since most of them needed two players and she had been alone here until just a few days ago, but now that she had Kyoko maybe she could get some use out of them after all. In the top drawer she kept her notebooks and drawing supplies; colored pencils, rulers, and erasers. She took the notebook out and brought it back to Kyoko.

"It's not much, just a couple." she said as Kyoko started leafing through. There was a distinct difference between the older drawings towards the front of the notebook and the newest ones towards the back. Kyoko imagined if the escape plan ended up taking much longer, Homura would become a famous artist by the time she got out. Kyoko wanted to crack the joke, but knew it would be out of character so had to keep it to herself.

The very last picture was of a field of flowers; the amount of detail was impressive. Homura had used colored pencils to color in each individual flower, even the tiny blades of grass were drawn in with a certain level of care. Towards the top was a sky, with the blues being dark to the left of the page, and getting lighter towards the right side of the page where the sun would be coming from. Within the sky there were three words written in white bubble letters that were meant to look like clouds. Kyoko could tell a lot of attention was paid to getting the shading just right. The three words were: " _Thinking of you"_

"You can have that one." Homura said, "I was thinking of my girlfriend when I drew it, but I don't have any way to get it to her. So, you might as well take it." Kyoko got the message.

"Thank you," she said, "I will treasure it. This girlfriend of yours, you really care a lot about her, huh?"

Homura nodded, her expression becoming distant. "I was a different person before I met her. My life was… Well, it wasn't anything to be too proud of. She changed me though, she made me strong, she gave me something to fight for. She made me believe in myself… She means the world to me."

Though Kyoko's impressions of her own past self were slightly different than Homura's, she knew exactly what she was talking about. Sayaka had changed her as well, made her a better person, made her believe in herself again, made her trust people again. Listening to those words from the ravenette gave Kyoko an odd feeling, as she thought how similar she and Homura were. They had always gotten along pretty well, even before the rest of the group got together, but somehow she thought this experience was bringing them even closer.

"She's lucky to have you." Kyoko said.

"I'd give anything to talk to her again, and to be with her… That's why…" She shook her head. "The entire time, I just had her on my mind, thinking I had to get back to her. Otherwise I never would have done something like that to you."

"I understand." Kyoko said, putting a hand over hers, "And I told you it's alright."

They smiled at each other. Homura still felt guilty about the bandage around Kyoko's neck, but she was glad to have her here.

Kyoko could see the guilt on Homura's face and thought, ' _Don't worry about it, I'll pay you back once we break you out of here.'_

* * *

"Haven't you heard anything yet?" Sayaka asked impatiently, pacing around right behind Leiko's computer chair.

Leiko was typing away furiously, the light from the computer reflecting off her glasses. "The answer was ' _no'_ when you asked five minutes ago, why do you think it would have changed since then?"

"Her appointment should have ended a while ago though, right?" Sayaka pressed on, "Is she still in there with Homura or what?"

"How many times are you going to force me to tell you?… I-DON'T-KNOW!" Leiko's typing became more furious as her face scrunched up and she stared hard into the screen, which had those strange symbols flashing by it.

"Well geez," Sayaka huffed, folding her arms, "no need to be like that about it." She then walked back to the couch and plopped down next to Madoka, who was sitting there fidgeting her hands together nervously, worried that Sayaka and Leiko were going to end up fighting again.

"Don't worry." Madoka said to her, "I'm sure Kyoko is fine. She is probably just spending a little extra time with Homura… Or maybe she is already on her way back and Mami just hasn't gotten around to calling us yet."

Mami would be hiding out somewhere near the laboratory to rendezvous with Kyoko once she left. The idea was to contact the rest of the group once Kyoko was out, so everyone would know all is well. So far she had not done so, even though Kyoko's appointment should have ended nearly an hour ago. It seemed to be making both Madoka and Sayaka nervous. Leiko, on the other hand, was characteristically indifferent.

"Something just came through." Leiko said, and not a second later Sayaka had her hands on the back of her computer chair and looking at the screen from over her shoulder.

"What is it?" Madoka was a bit more tactful as she approached the screen. She knew Leiko had issues with people invading her personal space, and tried to be respectful of it.

"Remember that Dr. Endou guy I mentioned? He just sent out an email to several of the higher-ups. I intercepted it, so they haven't received it yet. I'll have to let it through soon, though, otherwise they will realize their communications are being tampered with." Leiko clicked and tapped away a bit more. "Hm, there seems to be a video attached."

"A video?" Madoka asked.

Leiko pulled it up, and all three of them leaned in closer when they saw an image of Homura holding a knife against Kyoko's throat.

"What the hell are they doing?" Sayaka asked.

"It must be an act, right?" Madoka said, though she was frightened by the look in Homura's eyes. It's been over two weeks since Madoka had last seen her, and she had spent every day worrying about her and wondering how she was handling being locked up in such a horrible place. Madoka imagined she was probably scared, maybe depressed, definitely angry at her captors, but nonetheless Homura would maintain her strength through the ordeal. Madoka longed for the day when they'd rescue her, and pictured herself wrapping her arms around a stoic Homura as they were reunited. Homura would probably think of something cool to say, she always had a knack for theatrics in dramatic moments like that. Then, everything would be back to normal, and this whole mess could be forgotten as they continued on with their lives.

The truth is, Madoka was rather naïve, and the image she now saw of Homura brought those hopeful ideas crashing down around her; she saw the pain in Homura's eyes - the tormented madness. She looked like an animal who was backed into a corner, stripped of the option to flee, and had no other choice than to revert to that dark place that prioritized self-preservation, having no other option than to fight. But why Kyoko? Why would she be doing something like that to Kyoko!?

 _It's an act, just an act!,_ Madoka assured herself, but the more the video rolled on, the more the reality was dawning on her. It may have started as an act, but it was becoming clear that it had gone far beyond that. "No…" Madoka said under her breath, not realizing she was vocalizing her thoughts, "Homura, stop it…"

Sayaka's knuckles were turning white as her grip tightened on the back of the computer chair. She wanted to scream out several derogatory things about Homura, 'psycho-bitch' being one of the terms coming to her mind, but she wouldn't with Madoka standing right there. Her heart was racing. She too was trying to tell herself it was just an act, but she saw the genuine fear in Kyoko's eyes and it filled her heart with dread.

When Homura screamed: _"Do it now! Last chance or she's dead!"_ both Madoka and Sayaka could hear the desperation in her voice, and the idea that it was just a really convincing act no longer seemed plausible. When the blood started dripping down from under the knife's edge, Madoka could not take it any more.

"I can't watch!" she said, running back to the couch and burying her face into the armrest.

She could no longer see the video, but she could hear Kyoko's plea for mercy and Homura's last desperate scream before the video cut off. Simultaneously Sayaka shouted: "Kyoko! NO!"

Sayaka dashed to the other room to grab her phone. "I gotta call Mami!" She ran right past Madoka, who was sobbing into the side of the couch. Leiko just sat there, staring at the screen and placidly adjusting her glasses.

Sayaka's hands were trembling as she flipped the phone open, and misdialed her first attempt before taking a deep breath and doing it properly. Her heart raced as she heard the phone ringing. "Come on, come on, pick up!" The last thing she saw before the video cut out was Homura slashing the knife across Kyoko's neck, and Kyoko falling to the ground. She couldn't tell how deep the cut was, but she was fearing the worst. "Pick up!"

Then, she heard Mami's voice: "Sayaka, I was-"

"What's going on?" Sayaka shouted, "Did you meet Kyoko yet? Is she alright?"

"Yes, Kyoko's right here, she just arrived, hold on."

Then Kyoko's voice came through: "Hey, princess!" she said in her casual carefree way.

"Kyoko!" Sayaka sighed with relief, warm tears running down her face. Madoka was now standing in the doorway, waiting anxiously, and trying to calm her trembling hands.

* * *

"Kaiji, can you come back into my office for a moment?" Endou said into an intercom, while holding down a button on his keyboard that would send the message only to Dr. Kaiji.

Dr. Sakura had stayed with Homura for a while. They had just talked for a while and then played a board game together before Homura said she was getting tired and was ready for bed. Endou was a bit irritated by how long Dr. Sakura ended up staying, but he saved his complaints for another day. He had other things on his mind at the moment. First, he wanted to make sure Dr. Sakura was alright. She assured him that she was fine, also saying: "It's been a long day, I'll give you a more detailed report on my thoughts of Subject One tomorrow morning, if that's alright." Endou granted her this request, for now. Right now, he had more pressing concerns about this psychologist that they had hired. He looked into a few things on his computer, watching over some video footage from Dr. Sakura's meetings with Homura to confirm his suspicions, then called Dr. Kaiji in to talk to him about it

Kaiji came back into the office which he had only recently left and took a seat. "So, what's this about?" he asked.

Endou was quiet for a moment. His hands were folded under his chin in deep thought. Kaiji figured this was going to be a follow-up to their conversation about Glazadrine, which he personally felt was still unneeded. What Endou actually said surprised him: "Kaiji, what are your impressions of Dr. Sakura?"

"My impressions of her? To what extent?" Endou waited him out, choosing not to give any extra clarification. Kaiji cleared his throat. "She does seem to have a special relationship with Homura."

"Subject One." Endou corrected him.

"Yes… Subject One. Anyway, it's kind of early to tell, but I think she has had a positive effect. Listen, if this is about dosing Homura with Glazadrine again, let's just get to the point. If it comes to that, I'm not opposed to it, but we should only be considering it as an absolute last res-"

"This is about Dr. Kay Sakura." Endou said, interrupting him, his voice was cold as stone. If Kaiji knew about Homura nicknaming him "Dr. Mono" he would have clearly been able to see why from that response. "I have a few concerns. Deep concerns."

"What do you mean?"

Dr. Endou turned his computer screen so Kaiji could see it, then started clicking away on the keyboard. "I don't know what to make of it yet, but what I'm about to show you must stay between the two of us. I don't want you talking to anyone else about it. No phone calls, and absolutely NO emails. You can't even make any personal notes on the subject. Do you understand?"

"Endou? What are you talking about?"

"Dr. Sakura managed to make a connection with Subject One rather quickly, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I thought so too, but like I said, it's probably because she's the only person who has really been kind to Homur… eh, Subject One, since she has been brought here." Kaiji was not sure why Endou was now refusing to call Homura by her name, but he decided it was best to be professional and follow suit for now.

"What I'm going to say may sound far-fetched, but I have evidence to support it, so hear me out. You are one of the only people I feel I can trust to show the discretion I require regarding this issue." He pulled up a video from one of the hidden cameras in Homura's room. It was from the day of Dr. Sakura's first meeting with Homura. He fast-forwarded it until Dr. Sakura sat down at the table and asked to see Homura's notebook. "Watch closely." he said, and returned the video to normal speed.

Kaiji watched as the notebook was passed to Kay, but did not see anything out of the ordinary. He shook his head: "I don't get it."

"Watch again." Endou replayed the loop, slower this time. The camera was angled so that it could see inside the notebook as it was passed between them "Watch their hands." He slowed it down to a frame by frame, and Kaiji could see that as the notebook was passed between them their hands brushed together very briefly with the cover of the notebook blocking one side. Kaiji still did not get it though. What was Endou getting at? He just shook his head.

"Doesn't it look as though Kay passed something into Subject One's hand?" Endou asked.

Kaiji just raised an eyebrow. "Play it again." He watched closely, for the third time, and shook his head. "I guess it's possible, but…" He shook his head again. "I guess if she wanted to pass something to Homura, she could have done it in that moment, but what could she possibly want to give to her? They had only _just_ met each other."

"Take a look at this." Endou hit a few keys, and the one large camera angle was replaced by four smaller ones. "These are the camera's in Subject One's room that are _not_ hidden." He started the loop again. "Watch where Dr. Sakura looks just moments before the notebook is passed to her. Look closely, watch her eyes." Kaiji watched, and he could see Kay take a glance at each of the visible cameras. "Now, look at the notebook, notice anything peculiar?"

Kaiji watched, and didn't get it at first, but then it hit him. "She lifts the cover of the notebook, blocking sight from the cameras, just as their hands are passed behind it."

"Exactly." Endou's eyes narrowed, "She purposely blocked sight of their hands."

"Endou." Kaiji said, still feeling skeptical, "Can I be honest with you for a moment?"

"Yes, that's why I'm showing this to you. I need your honest opinion."

"I think you are looking for something that isn't there. You know what this is? It's a series of small coincidences, and you are thinking too deeply on them."

"Why would she look at the cameras?"

"It's human nature. It's natural for someone to subconsciously note the location of cameras when they know they are being recorded."

"Why do their hands touch?"

Kaiji shrugged. "It probably just _LOOKS_ that way. There was no reason behind it, no premeditated intent. Their hands just happened to touch for a moment. You can't even see anything in Dr. Sakura's hand."

"Because she was keeping it cupped inside her palm. Look again." He played the original video where their hands could clearly be seen as they passed behind the notebook. "See that, her hand is cupped, she could be holding something in her palm."

"Sure, she _COULD_ be, but that doesn't mean she is. They don't even know each other at this point, and what could she possibly want to give to her?"

"Those are the questions I don't have answers to just yet. There's something else I found peculiar. Earlier today, when Subject One was holding Dr. Sakura hostage, remember when we told her we were going to use the gas? What did Dr. Sakura say?"

"She told us not to. She said: 'Just let me talk to her'."

"Dr. Sakura shouldn't have known about the gas, but didn't it seem as though she did in fact have prior knowledge about it?"

"That was after _we_ used the word 'gas'. She is smart, she must have figured it out. If that's not the case, maybe she found out some other way. Maybe you mentioned it to her in one of your emails and are just not remembering correctly."

"No. I have made no mention of the gas to Dr. Sakura, and there is no way she could have known about it."

"Then she just figured it out on her own, like I said. What exactly are you suggesting here anyway? That she has been hacking into our systems and reading top secret files? If that's the case, I assure you: our firewalls are impossible to breach."

"There could be a leak somewhere; a double agent."

"So what are you saying? Dr. Sakura herself is a double agent? And working for whom? Endou, you don't have nearly enough proof to make a claim like that, and if you value retaining your credibility I suggest you don't bring this up to anyone else." Dr. Kaiji stood up. "Go home and get some sleep, you're not thinking clearly."

"There's one more thing." Dr. Endou added, "Remember when I told you not to make any phone calls or write any emails about this? That's because I believe our communications are being tampered with." Kaiji opened his mouth, getting ready for another argument but the look in Endou's eyes stopped him cold. "I have proof."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"We need to get her the hell out of there." Kyoko said, biting hard into an apple, "And I mean _pronto_."

"Can I see?" Sayaka asked, ignoring Kyoko's statement, and reaching for the bandage.

"Na, I'd have to take the bandage off, and I really don't feel like redoing it." Kyoko said, "Don't worry, it's really not that bad." She knew that it was in fact bad enough that it would cause Sayaka to freak out, so she just wanted to give her a dismissive reassurance that it was fine and not have to actually show it to her. It gave her a bit of discomfort if she moved her head to the side, but it wasn't anything she couldn't deal with. She could also heal it if she really wanted to, but Mami pointed out that Dr. Sakura would be expected to have a scar after that. "Look, the whole thing was planned out." Kyoko explained, spitting out watery chunks of apple as she spoke. "She didn't just randomly attack me, she just got a little caught up in the moment and got carried away, I guess." She shrugged, "It's no big deal."

Madoka was still pretty upset, she sat on the couch with Mami, holding a cup of tea in her hands and staring into it. Kyoko had given her the picture Homura drew for her already, which managed to put a smile on her face for a little while, but the memory of that crazed look in Homura's eyes as she held a knife to Kyoko's throat was still eating at her.

"It _is_ a big deal." Leiko said, correcting Kyoko, "I told you to tell her to start being more complacent, and instead of that the two of you hatch some hare-brained plan that made it seem like she was about to murder someone?"

"That's not how it was supposed to go. Besides, under my Dr. Sakura persona I showed them that I'm able to chill her out, so you know, maybe they won't use the drug since they know they have me now."

"You shouldn't use words like _'maybe'_ when dealing with these people. You want to know what just happened? Dr. Endou sent a video of Homura slashing your throat to basically everyone involved in this thing. They were on the fence about using the drug before, but that is only because I've been rewriting their emails and messing with their communications. If it weren't for all that, it already would have happened. Now, after this..." Leiko shook her head, "I don't know if there's anything I can do."

"Did he also show the part where she didn't actually do anything? Then apologized, and hung out with me all complacent-like?"

"No, he didn't. I think Dr. Endou has become very frustrated with Homura's lack of cooperation with him, even more so from the resistance I've been creating within his own networks of researchers. What you and Homura did today may have been the biggest favor you could have done for him. In the past week Homura assaulted two armed guards, demolished a test room, tore up her own room, made a series of threats, and almost made good on one of those threats tonight. Endou wants to prove she is dangerous and needs to be subdued, and now he has all the evidence he needs."

"Can we get her out?" Madoka asked, not wanting to hear any more. "We should be talking about that."

"Madoka's right." Mami said, "Our goal here isn't just trying to keep her comfortable while she is in there, and providing her with GriefSeeds. Our goal is to actually get her out. Now, Kyoko came up with an interesting idea earlier today. While she is behind those metal doors there isn't much we can do, but what if we could get her out of the building altogether?"

"Yeah, then busting her out would be a cinch." Sayaka said, "Hell, at that point Homura could probably just break herself out."

"Yeah, that won't be necessary. I actually had a bit of a weird idea." Kyoko said, causing everyone to look back in her direction. She was leaning against the wall with her arms folded and a sharp look in her eyes. She was still dressed in the white lab coat which belonged to the Dr. Sakura persona, but her face and her size returned to that of a normal fourteen-year-old girl. The outfit actually looked rather comedic on her when she was like this. It looked as if she were a child wearing an oversized Halloween costume. "It actually hit me when Mami and I were on our way back. I was thinking about how me and Sayaka were chasing a witch earlier today…" She looked over to Sayaka. "How did that go, by the way?" she asked.

"What do you think?" Sayaka answered, taking a GriefSeed out of her pocket and holding it up proudly. "Kind of a pain in the ass though, because just about every door in that warehouse we chased it into was locked. I swear, I must have knocked down at least twenty doors before finally..." Sayaka slowed down, noting the glimmer in Kyoko's eyes. She knew something was up, but she did not quite get it right away. Leiko looked around at all the others, not getting it herself. Madoka and Sayaka also looked at each other, neither of them fully understanding what Kyoko was getting at either.

Mami understood though. It was clear by the way she set her tea down, and looked at Kyoko with wide anticipating eyes. "Kyoko, please continue."

"Sayaka just said it all, didn't she?" Kyoko laughed. She noted the confusion on Leiko's face and wanted to bask in the glory of knowing something that she didn't know for a change. Sure, Leiko was pretty smart when it came to stuff that needed to be learned from books and whatnot. However, when it came to good old-fashioned street smarts, as well as knowing things about the Magical Girl world, Kyoko was the veteran.

Leiko seemed to understand the smug look on Kyoko's face, at least. "Would you quit the theatrics and just tell us already?"

Kyoko grinned, "Alright, alright, I'll feed you little bird." the remark making Leiko's scowl intensify. "The witch wasn't in the building when we first started tracking it down. We chased it _into_ the building - through locked doors!"

"Okay, I get it, but what's the significance?" Leiko asked. "Are you saying we find some way to chase a witch into the lab? If it's for the sake of causing confusion, or convincing them that Homura is in danger, surely there is a better way."

"No, no, listen. The thing about witches is they exist inside their barriers, and when they move around, they take their barriers with them!"

Now everyone in the room got it, including Leiko as she pondered this for a moment before adding: "So, if Homura is inside a witch's barrier..."

"That's right." Kyoko said, snatching the GriefSeed out of Sayaka's hand and holding it up for everyone to see. "And I think we've got the perfect candidate right here."

* * *

 _"Kay? K-Kyoko?"_

 _"Kyoko? Now what could that mean?"_

Rewind

 _"Kay? K-Kyoko?"_

 _"Kyoko? Now what could that mean?"_

Kyoko? What _did_ that mean?

The computer room was completely dark aside from the light of one single terminal amongst the rows of black screens. Its soft blue light reflected off of Kaiji's glasses as he watched the tapes with Dr. _'Kay'_ Sakura and Homura Akemi over and over again. He had an idea, but it was so far-fetched he could not make himself believe it. He looked closely at the two of them on that day when they had first met each other. Freezing the image of Homura's face as Dr. Sakura introduced herself.

 _"You can just call me by my personal name, Kay."_

 _"Kay? K-Kyoko?"_

It was clear that Homura was surprised for some reason, but Kaiji could not imagine why that would be. She definitely had a strong reaction to the name Kay, or was that really it? Kay is a name that could also be a letter; the same first letter of the name Kyoko. Did that have any significance? Kaiji shook his head. Maybe Homura's surprise was not from the name Kay at all, Kaiji thought maybe he was being like Dr. Endou and scrutinizing on a minor detail, trying to see something that was not there.

He watched the video again.

Maybe the surprised look on Homura's face is because Dr. Sakura had offered for her to call her by her personal name. Kaiji knew that Homura's limited interactions with the staff of the lab had mostly been cold and formal. Even worse than that, actually, Homura had been treated like a prisoner ever since she was brought here. Dr. Sakura being the first person to talk to her in a friendly way could be all it was about. That still did not explain why she then said the name _Kyoko_.

Kaiji exited out of the playback, and logged onto the live security feed. He opened Homura's room and went to the ceiling fan camera in her bedroom that she had not managed to find and destroy. He had to switch the night vision on, and once that was done he could see the entire room clearly under a layer of green tint. Homura was in her bed, completely under the covers except for her head. There was movement behind her eyelids, which meant she was in a cycle of R.E.M. sleep. Kaiji just watched her for a while, thinking how ordinary she seemed when she was like this.

According to her, she actually had been completely ordinary until she had woken up in the hospital nearly half a year back, and started discovering her powers. Since then, she managed to save an entire city from a disaster thanks to a vision of the future... as a result of doing that, she was then kidnapped right out of her home and locked up underground.

Kaiji read the mission report of when their team abducted her. Apparently they picked the lock to her apartment while she was sleeping, came right into her room and pulled a bag over her head, then wrestled her into submission, which according to the soldiers was abnormally difficult considering she was just a fifteen-year-old girl. They eventually had to resort to tasing her, then sticking her with a shot of anesthetic while she was stunned. The next thing Homura would have known, was waking up in the very same bed she now slept in, not knowing how she got there.

Kaiji remembered that first day. Watching her as she woke up and started to look around. She kept her eyes on the cameras mounted on the walls, watching them suspiciously, as she made her first run of the apartment which would soon be recognized as her prison. When she found the metal door at the front she started kicking and banging on it. She ran her fingers along the edges, and tried using her palms to slide it open, with no success. This went on for a few minutes until Dr. Endou buzzed in on the intercom and explained things to her. She did not take the news very well. After Endou finished his explanation, she started banging on the door and screaming. Then, she went right to smashing the cameras off the walls, which were replaced at a later date when they had finally calmed her down and convinced her to come to a test room cooperatively.

Endou's treatment of her has always been questionable, but Kaiji's recent conversation with the man brought up some even more serious doubts in Kaiji's mind about how fit Endou was for the job. As far as Kaiji could tell, his suspicions of Dr. Sakura were not only unfounded, they were highly outrageous. She had a well-documented resume and work history. Kaiji even looked up some articles written by her on the Internet, and even a few news reports where her name was mentioned. There was no doubt that she was who she said she was, and even if she was not, then how could she have possibly faked all of that?

Then his ' _proof'_ that their communications were being tampered with was equally circumstantial. It was mostly supposed inconsistencies regarding responses he was getting in his emails from other members of their teams. No hard evidence, just over-speculation and grasping at straws. Even though the way he presented the argument was somewhat convincing, the realistic possibility of a hacker having the ability to do what he was claiming was just ludicrous. And who would be doing it? Americans? Russians? Chinese? Endou agreed to keep his _'findings'_ to himself for now, and asked Kaiji to also stay quiet about it as well, which Kaiji agreed to. He did not trust Endou, but he could not do anything about it for now; he had to remain professional. Once he managed to build a decent case against Endou, however, he would start pushing to have the man taken off of the assignment.

He watched as Homura stirred in her sleep. He did feel bad for her. From what he could tell, she was a kind-hearted person and really did not deserve anything that was happening to her. It was a necessary evil, however. Although their team tried to make her as comfortable as possible, it seemed that as long as she was locked down here she would refuse to be happy.

He was preparing to shut the computer down for the night when Homura's lips parted and a sound came out. "Ma... Ma..." her head shifted back and forth, "Mado…ka..."

Madoka Kaname, that was the name of one of Homura's classmates. According to the report, Homura had been to her house almost every day in the weeks leading up to her abduction. Kaiji wondered if she was the girlfriend that Homura had mentioned to Dr. Sakura.

Suddenly, Homura gasped and sat up. She looked around the pitch black room, until her eyes fell on the digital clock which was one of the only light sources currently in there: 01:23.

She put her legs over the side of the bed, then slowly raised herself to her feet and started walking towards the door with her hands in front of her. They did not give her control of the lights in her apartment, except for the bathroom, in order to keep her on schedule. Usually at around 10:00 in the evening they would shut off all the power except for a few appliances, and Homura would have no choice but to just go to sleep.

Kaiji watched her as she negotiated her way through the dark apartment, noting that she was doing a pretty good job, considering the room was underground and therefore pitch-black when the lights were out it . He supposed she had been there for a while, and knew the layout of the apartment pretty well, but he still could not help but think there was something peculiar about how she was able to find the door and grab the doorknob, without needing to feel around for it at all. " _Enhanced eyesight?"_ he wondered casually. Aside from stopping time, she had been shown to have other abilities, and they did not yet know everything about her, so it was possible..

They were not able to fully prove it yet, but they suspected she had more strength than a girl of her size should have. The X-rays and physical examinations were not able to reveal a physical explanation for this, but it was made clear the first time she tore up a test room. When she was using the assault rifle she was barely affected by the recoil, and she had handled it like an expert. There was nothing in her file to show that she had any prior experience with firearms, so it was certainly something worth noting.

Aside from that, they also noted she had an increased tolerance for pain; the tasers they sometimes had to use on her were by far more powerful than a standard issue. She also had been shown to have somewhat of a healing factor, as the wound she received on her forehead from a ricocheted bullet when she destroyed the test room healed much faster than it should have.

She walked over to the kitchen and felt around inside the cabinets. She stared hard into them, as if trying to peer through a blanket of darkness, then gave up and went to the refrigerator. She opened the door and left it open so the light would stay on and make it a little easier for her to see, before going back to the cabinet. She still seemed to be having trouble finding whatever it was she was looking for, so Kaiji clicked around his computer for a moment, and turned the kitchen light on for her.

She flinched back, a bit startled by the sudden change in her environment, and also shielded her light sensitive eyes for a moment while they adjusted. Then she put a middle finger in the air and waved it around in the general direction where she knew a camera to be. Kaiji found that to be slightly humorous. He was getting tired himself, and figured he would wait for Homura to finish in the kitchen and then retire for the night himself.

* * *

Madoka had called home earlier that night and asked if it would be okay to sleep over at Mami's house. She told her mom that she had lost track of time, and did not want to risk going out on the city streets at night. Her mom sounded a little bit upset with her, but ultimately agreed and told her to just make sure she did not come back too late tomorrow. She knew Madoka was usually good about following the rules, and wouldn't give her too much grief about it this time. Besides, she would not want her daughter to go walking around the city alone at night either.

Madoka felt bad about lying to her mom. She could have easily started heading back home before sunset, but at that point she had already seen the video with Homura, and was so upset she wanted to just stay with her friends. Besides that, she also wanted to be involved in their planning as they worked on how exactly they were going to get Homura out.

Kyoko's idea about using a witch's barrier to _"transport"_ Homura out of the building was an interesting one, and they had all gotten rather excited about it. The thing is, once a new idea is discovered it is easy to only see the good, as the initial impressions of its outcome tend to lead to the best-case scenario. As they discussed the details they started to realize that the plan was going to need a lot more work.

Getting the witch inside would be simple: all Kyoko would have to do is try and slip Homura the GriefSeed, and wait a few days for it to hatch.

"There is no guarantee the witch is going to try and actually leave the lab." Leiko interjected. "Especially with all those scientists down there. If it's a smart witch, it will destroy the elevator and start picking off all the humans down there one by one. With all that extra energy, Homura will just end up being stuck down there with an extra powerful witch and still unable to get out. I don't think that's necessarily doing her any favors."

"Besides that," said Mami, "if this is the plan we are going with, then we have to find a way to make sure no one gets hurt."

"You mean those scientists?" Kyoko asked. She was now out of the Dr. Sakura costume and back to wearing her casual street clothes; a green hoodie, black tank top, and jean shorts. "Does keeping them safe really have to factor into the plan?"

"We are Magical Girls, not killers." Mami said sternly, giving Kyoko a scolding look.

"Mami's right." Sayaka added. "Besides, if the witch has plenty of food with it right down there in the lab, then it won't have any reason to leave."

"Are we even sure this barrier transport method will work?" Leiko asked.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Kyoko started to explain. "You know how sometimes when you're fighting a witch, and after you win and the barrier disappears you are somewhere totally different than where you started? That's because the witch was moving around while you were inside its barrier." Kyoko could have added a quip and taken a stab at Leiko for having so little experience with witches herself, but decided to let it go this time.

"Anyway, we need a way to get them to evacuate the lab." Sayaka said. "Any ideas on that?"

"Leiko, is there anything you can do?" Mami asked her.

"Nothing comes to mind." Leiko admitted. They all sat back and pondered the issue.

"At school we have fire drills sometimes." Madoka offered. "Couldn't you hack in and schedule something like that?"

Leiko gave her one of her classic condescending stares. "This is a state-of-the-art government research facility, I don't think they have fire drills…"

"Hey, wait, Madoka's on the right track, though." said Sayaka. "What other reasons do buildings get evacuated?"

"Besides fires?" Leiko pondered the question: "Gas leaks, bomb threats… what?" She noticed everyone jumped at the suggestion of a bomb threat.

Kyoko grinned, "You don't know Homura too well, so you aren't familiar with her particular set of abilities." She looked around to the rest of the group. "Knowing her, I'm willing to bet she still has a few explosives stored up in that _'shield space'_ of hers."

The plan was starting to come together, but a few things still needed to be ironed out. First of all, they needed to communicate the plan with Homura, and make sure she understood the purpose of the witch so she would allow it to hatch, and would not end up just killing it. Kyoko had a solution in mind.

"There's a little trick I've been working on… hang on a sec." She found a piece of paper and a pen, and gathered everyone around the coffee table. "Alright, watch closely." She started drawing on the paper. As Madoka watched, she got a strange sensation watching Kyoko's pencil move around. The lines she were making did not seem to make any sense. It was as if after being printed, they would change, except they were not, and Madoka was never certain of where the lines were supposed to be. The feeling she got was similar to when she watched the foreign symbols that would zip by on Leiko's computer screen.

When Kyoko was finished, the lines came together and finally started to make sense. The lines shifted and became the picture of a crudely drawn cat's face… It was also clear that art and penmanship certainly were not Kyoko's strong points. "It's a cat." Madoka said, answering as if she were a contestant on a gameshow.

Kyoko grinned. "Look closer." She waved her hand over the page, and the lines started shifting until they formed two words: ' _Secret message'_.

"Woah!" Sayaka exclaimed. "When did you learn to do that?"

"It's a technique I've been working on over the last couple days. I needed a way to communicate with Homura more freely, and this is the best idea I could come up with. All I'm doing is using my magic to enchant the page. The drawing of a cat's face was the enchantment, the words _'secret message_ ' is what I actually wrote. This way Homura can write to me freely as well, and all I have to do is enchant her writing into a picture." She waved her hand over the words again. From Madoka's point of view, it changed into a poorly done picture of a flower. "Madoka, what do you see?"

"A flower." she answered.

"What?" Sayaka said. "I see a dog now! Well… I think that's what it is… you really are a lousy artist, Kyoko."

"Hey! Shut the hell up!" Kyoko sneered. "I'm still working on it, okay?"

"Seems like a handy trick." Leiko said. "That way you can reveal the message to Homura while keeping it as a picture for the cameras. Still, try to keep your messages to a minimum. The more you do it, the more likely they are to realize something's up."

"Yeah, I gotcha. Well, I mean, it's not like they are going to be suspicious of Dr. Sakura having magic powers or anything." Kyoko laughed. "So I doubt they are going to be paying attention _that_ closely."

* * *

When Homura was done with her late-night snack, she discarded the container into the trash disposal. She listened closely as it banged and clanked against the metal tube on its way down the chute, trying to get an idea of how far the drop was.

Kaiji figured she would go to bed now, and he could retire for the night himself, but instead of that Homura went to the living room and grabbed a chair. She set it up in front of the picture that had a camera hidden behind it, apparently deciding she did not want to talk to a plant this time.

She sat down and looked at the picture for a while before asking "Is someone there?"

Kaiji thought for a minute. It was pretty rare for Homura to address them directly, unless she was angry about something and shouting out threats. He pushed down a button for the speakerphone and said "Yes, what is it?"

Homura smiled half-heartedly. "Good, it's you. I really don't like talking to Dr. Mono."

Kaiji could not help laughing to himself. He knew right away she was referring to Endou, and it really was a perfect nickname for him, especially coming from someone who has only ever heard his voice. "Is there something I can help you with, Homura?"

"Um…" her eyes shifted away for a moment, "what's your name? Y-you know my name, so… I'd like to be able to address you properly as well."

Kaiji thought about it for a moment, and decided there was no reason not to tell her, so he did "Dr. Kaiji."

"Kaiji…" she played with the word for a moment, "that's a personal name isn't it?"

"Well, yes, my family name is Tashikowara." Then he added: "It doesn't suit me very well, so that's why I go by my personal name, even professionally."

Homura laughed. "That's funny. I actually used to feel the same way, except it was with my personal name, Homura. I always used to just go by Akemi." She shrugged. "I don't know, guess I ended up growing into it, because I do prefer Homura now... Listen, I just wanted to apologize."

"Apologize?"

"About the way I have been acting lately. I don't know, I guess I've been getting a little stir crazy in here." She laughed and gestured around the room. "Well… and I really want to go home but… I know that's probably never going to happen. Anyway, I don't want to hurt anyone… Earlier today I just thought if I could make it look real enough, then maybe…" She shrugged. "I really wasn't going to hurt Kay, though, I swear!" Homura had the guilt spelled all over her face. "She's still going to be allowed to come back here, right?"

"That's up to Dr. Sakura, but as of right now, there is no talk of stopping her appointments. If something like what happened today happens again, however, I'm afraid we will have no choice but to discontinue the meetings."

"I see…"

Kaiji thought for a while. This was the first personal conversation he ever had with Homura. From the way she was speaking right now, she really did seem like an ordinary fifteen-year-old girl. It was easy to forget when she was tearing rooms apart and threatening people's lives, but she really was just a child. She was a child, and Endou wanted to start drugging her in order to get her under control. Kaiji had been fighting against it, and it seemed he had a decent level of support from outside of the lab, which surprised him, but he was thankful for it all the same. Still, if Homura did not start working with them, it would only be a matter of time. He knew he could not tell her about the drug, but he wanted to give her some kind of warning at least.

"Homura, I know you don't want to be here, but things would be much better for you if you started cooperating with us."

Homura was quiet for a while. She brushed her hair and said: "I'll try" dismissively. Then she got up and said: "Well, it's late. I should get back to sleep now."

Kaiji sat with his finger on the intercom for a while. It was still bothering him; _Kyoko_ , what could that mean? He wanted to just ask her. Maybe there was a good explanation. Without consciously coming to the decision, his finger pressed down and he said: "Homura, what does the word Kyoko mean?"

Homura looked up with a raised eyebrow. "It sounds like a name."

"Why did you say it to Dr. Sakura?" Kaiji asked, and watched her face closely. She showed no expression: it was a poker face if he had ever seen one.

"Did I?" She shrugged. "I don't remember… anyway, I'm tired." She continued into her room. Once she was situated in bed, Kaiji turned the lights off.

Kay Sakura… Dr. _"K"_ Sakura… Kyoko Sakura?

He closed out of the security system and logged back onto the standard drive. As an extra security measure, none of their security systems were to be directly connected to a device which had access to the Internet, so he could not do both at the same time.

Once he was on the standard drive, he opened a search engine and typed: " _Kyoko Sakura"_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Kaiji did not know what he was looking for, but his gut-feeling was telling him something. When he thought about the name Kyoko, he was trying to come up with all the different possibilities, but ultimately his ideas were so outrageous he started convincing himself that he was just acting crazy. What could he possibly be getting at with this? The idea that was tugging at him the most was that not only is Dr. Kay Sakura not who she says she is, but also that she had a prior relationship with Homura. It was so far-fetched, though, that he could not quite make himself believe it. Still, that first meeting between Homura and Kay was bothering him. Something just did not seem right.

It was not just him who thought something was amiss either; Endou was the first to say something about it. Kaiji didn't necessarily like Endou, but he could not deny the man's intelligence. Professionally, Kaiji had nothing but respect for him, even though their recent conversations started to give him a few doubts about Endou's character.

He scoured the internet, and it turned out Kyoko Sakura was a fairly common name. There were dozens of matches in home listings throughout Japan, he found a C-list celebratory of the same name, and it was also the name of an anime character (from a children's show called _Magical Molly_ ). He tried just searching the name Kyoko by itself, and the first few results were for baby name websites. The name Kyoko apparently meant " _girl of the city"_ Well, Kay Sakura was apparently from Tokyo so there was a small connection there, but Kaiji did not think that it actually amounted to anything. That thought was just his tired mind grasping at straws.

He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, then looked at the time: 03:07 am. "This is ridiculous." he told himself. He needed to go home. He had a wife and son there, and he knew it was not right for him to stay at work so late if it was not necessary. He had the next couple days off, and he was glad for that because he needed some time to clear his head.

Then, he heard a clicking sound and his eyes shot back to the computer screen. He was only looking away for a few seconds while he rubbed his eyes, but in that time the Internet browser closed and a blank word document opened. _That's strange_ , he thought to himself, but shrugged it off, thinking maybe the computer was just glitching out on him. He reached for the mouse, but suddenly the mouse slid away from his hand as if something had pulled on it.

He felt a sudden cold chill run down his back and it was enough to force him to jump out of his seat. The backs of his legs pushed the wheeled computer chair out from under him and caused it to glide across the room until it crashed against the parallel row of computers behind him.

He rubbed his eyes again, and shook his head, taking another look at the clock. Kaiji was a rational man, and did not have one superstitious bone in his body. He thought he just saw the mouse move on its own, but knew that was not possible. It was getting extremely late, and he had been feeling quite stressed lately. He figured he had to have just imagined it. He reached for the mouse again so that he could shut the computer down and go home for the night. This time, something else stopped him.

There was a single click from the keyboard and the letter "F" appeared on the screen. He paused and stared. It was a glitch, it had to be a glitch. Then another click: "I" Another: "N" There was at least a two second pause between each click of the keyboard, and he watched with widening eyes. It could not be a computer glitch, or even a hacker, he could see the keys actually pressing own as each letter was spelled out. It was as if an invisible hand was there slowly typing out a message. _"FIND HER"_

"F-find her?" Kaiji read out loud. This must be a dream, or a hallucination, he thought, he had to get home.

The typing started again, each keystroke as slow as before. K - Y - O - K - O - - S - A - K - U - R - A.

"Kyoko Sakura..." Kaiji whispered. Part of him wanted to believe he really was hallucinating, but that part of himself was not exactly winning out. "What is this?" He looked around the computer lab. "Is someone here?"

Then the mouse moved, and copied the text, then started pasting it over and over again.

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

 _KYOKO SAKURA_

"This is crazy, I'm losing my mind!" he declared to himself as he snatched the mouse and closed the word document. "If someone is playing a prank on me somehow, this isn't funny." he said to the empty room, and his eyes darted around suspiciously. It was not just that the letters appeared on the screen, there were plenty of explanations for how that could happen. The fact that he saw the actual keys press down is what was disturbing him so deeply. Not to mention the mouse moving on its own.

Then, he felt that cold chill run through him, and he heard a voice. It felt almost as if someone had whispered directly into his ear... but, that was not quite right. It was more like someone had spoken directly into his mind. It was a small feminine voice that said: _"You're not crazy."_

It startled him, and he turned around, swinging a fist through the air behind himself, but not connecting with anything. He stumbled, then looked back to the computer. A new word had been typed, this time in the address bar of the browser: " _cult"_

"Cult?"

 _"Find her."_ The whispering voice said to him once again, once again joined by that feeling of coldness. It was not an ordinary chill either, it felt more like some kind of force had swept across him and crawled under his skin. The chilling sensation came from the very core of his body.

He was rational, and he knew there was no way the things that he was experiencing right now were real. He decided he had to stop acknowledging these things, and go home and get some rest. He quickly grabbed his coat off the back of the computer chair and started pulling it on. He moved casually, he was not going to freak out and run away from his own delusion; knowing that only would only give it credibility. He was just going to put his coat on, walk out of the lab, and go home like a normal mentally sound human being. Because this was crazy, and he knew he was being crazy.

He had to ignore the cold sensation as it drifted through his body once again and he watched the mouse move and copy the word " _cult"_ It started pasting it over and over again in the address bar as it had done for " _Kyoko Sakura"_

 _cultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcult_

Then, the keyboard suddenly lifted up, and tore away from the computer, pulling its wire free from the terminal. Kaiji gasped and watched as the keyboard just hovered in the air, now losing what was left of his rationality that this was just a delusion. The keyboard then flew across the room and smashed against the wall as if someone had thrown it in a violent rage. The keys flew off of it and scattered across the floor, but Kaiji's legs were already moving as he ran for the exit in a blind panic.

The cold sensation ran through his body more powerfully than it ever had before, and he felt the words dance across his consciousness to the tune of that small female voice, except now it was a tad more aggressive and commanding _"FIND HER! KYOKO SAKURA! CULT! FIND HER!"_ Kaiji screamed, covering his hands over his ears as he ran out of the computer room.

* * *

Madoka shifted around on the futon in Mami's living room, unable to force herself to sleep. With a sigh, she eventually opened her eyes and looked around, realizing that she was already a couple of hours into a sleepless night. She looked towards the computer room and saw a soft light coming through the doorway, and she could faintly hear the soft clicking of keys.

 _Leiko's still awake?_

Deciding she could not get to sleep anyway, she went to go see what Leiko was doing. She was sitting amidst the glow of the computer screen in an otherwise dark room, just clicking away as she always did. "You're still awake?" Madoka asked cautiously, as she approached her, being careful not to startle her. It was one of the first times she was successful at it.

Leiko's head turned and she nodded. "Yes, I'm just going over some emails from the lab's staff. I'm trying to get a general idea of where their thinking is at... I'm surprised to see you are still awake as well."

"Yeah…" Madoka said, "I can't sleep… I don't know, guess I'm feeling a bit anxious is all…"

Leiko gave her a dismissive nod, not breaking her concentration from the screen for more than a second. Madoka continued to watch as those usual foreign symbols zipped by the screen. Madoka had tried to ask about those symbols before, and how exactly Leiko's powers worked, but she never got an answer. All the same, she decided to try again.

"How are you able to understand what those symbols say?"

"I don't."

"Oh… um…" Madoka was trying to figure out if Leiko was just being sarcastic or something.

Leiko then sighed and started explaining: "They don't look the same for me as they do for you. As they appear to you, it would be impossible for you or anyone else to make any sort of reason out of it."

Madoka's eyes widened, partly by how interesting of a concept that was, and partly because she could not believe Leiko had actually given her a real answer. Although, it still did not make much sense to her. "They look different to you? Well, what does it look like?"

"It would be impossible to try to explain… like explaining color to a blind person, or sound to someone who is deaf, or envisioning an object with four dimensions. But, as far as I know my power makes me the only person in the world who can make sense of what is actually on this screen. I guess you could say I'm looking at data in its purest form, even purer than binary code. I can't explain it, what it looks like, or why I understand it. I just do. For anyone else it would be like a word processor that's been forced to open a media file. It can technically be done, but the data that is returned will not make any sense. That's what you are seeing. Get it?"

"Um… Kind of?" Madoka grinned, she thought she understood, though the concept was a bit mind boggling.

Leiko nodded and continued typing.

"Um... do you think Homura's going to be alright?" Madoka asked.

Leiko shrugged. "If we can't get her out, then no. She doesn't have any means of escape herself, especially if they are willing to go to the extreme of sacrificing the lives of their own employees in order to keep her there. So we had better hope this plan with the witch's barrier works. If we try it and it fails, things are probably going to get even worse for her."

"It's going to work, though, right?"

"How should I know? It feels like a bit of a hail-mary, but it's the best we've got."

Madoka nodded. "Y-you know, Leiko. What you said before, that you are just doing all this for your own self interest... you didn't really mean that, right? I-I mean, even though you say that, you don't really seem like that kind of person to me."

Leiko turned to her and adjusted her glasses. "I don't know how you want me to respond. If there wasn't anything in it for me, then no, I wouldn't be doing any of this. It's a risk, as I said before. I've done my part in covering my own tracks, but there's still plenty of things that could go wrong." She turned back to her computer and started clicking away again, the glow of the computer screen turning her glasses into two white circles that hid the upper half of her face. "I'm more confident in my hacking abilities than my witch-fighting abilities, and that's the only reason I'm here right now. If I were able to get GriefSeeds on my own, I wouldn't have any need to be a part of this team."

Madoka watched Leiko for a while, and thought there is no way she could really be as cold as she acted. Madoka thought about what Leiko had said about her wish earlier. She said that someone had done something really bad to her, and she needed a wish to undo it. Madoka doubted that Leiko would ever divulge whatever that bad thing was, but Madoka had a feeling that whatever it was, it was to blame for Leiko's coldness.

"Leiko?" Madoka asked.

"Hm?"

Madoka fists tightened at the sides of her pyjamas as she gathered her resolve, then she quickly shouted out: "I'm your friend! Okay? Even if you don't open up to me, and even if you say mean things I don't care! There are bad people in the world, but you're not one of them, and you don't have to be afraid of getting close to people because there's lots of good people out there too!"

Leiko turned, her eye's already fixed into that condescending look she tends to get. She was prepared to make some cold, factual, and belittling response towards what Madoka had just said. But, by the time her head had turned, Madoka was already disappearing through the doorway on the other side of the room. Leiko stopped, and just stared at the now-empty room, thinking it over. Eventually she shook her head and smirked to herself, but the smirk soon faded back into a frown and her fingers went back to gliding across the keyboard.

* * *

Madoka went out onto the balcony to be alone for a few minutes. She stared out over the horizon and watched the little stars of light that spotted the tall dark silhouettes of buildings which made up the cityscape. She hoped the cold night air would help settle her nerves and help her get to sleep.

She could not stop worrying about Homura. Over the last couple weeks she was under the illusion that Homura's situation was not really _that_ bad, and that they would be able to free her in no time. After seeing that video, however, and seeing what Homura's confinement was actually doing to her, that illusion had been shattered, and Madoka saw the situation for how bad it actually was.

Then, she heard a voice: "It's useless, you know."

Her vision shifted to the other side of the balcony, where she saw two glowing red orbs sitting atop the railing. "Oh... it's you."

Kyubey walked along the railing, his small white feet moving with the calculated precision of a tightrope walker until he stopped a few feet away from Madoka. Then, he sat back on his haunches and stared up at her. "Don't you realize how illogical all of this is? Even if Homura does escape, it's not like she can just go back to her life the way it was. They already know who she is, and if she escapes the first thing they are going to do is go after the people who are close to her. Don't you realize your best course of action is to just forget about Homura Akemi?"

"Why don't you just leave me alone?" Madoka said with a dismissive voice, and she continued to gaze sadly over the horizon. Kyubey's head turned to the side slightly, and he continued to stare at her with his cordial little smile. "I don't want to talk to you. You don't care about any of us. If you did, the least you could do is help us get messages back and forth to Homura so Kyoko wouldn't have to take such a big risk."

"You're right, it would be pretty easy for me to do that. There would be no reason for it, though. Just like I said before, this whole mission is not only destined for failure, there's completely no profit in it. Personally, I was hoping for Homura to just hatch into a witch herself while she was down there. With all of those humans who would be trapped with her, just imagine how much energy she would be able to generate!"

Madoka turned away, not wanting to listen to him. She was not the type for violent impulses, but at that moment she wouldn't mind taking Homura's approach to dealing with the little weasel and just blowing his furry little head off.

"Moreover, you all are putting a lot of trust into someone whom you barely know. Are you sure you can trust her?"

"Leiko?" Madoka asked, to verify that's what he was talking about.

"If things really do start to go downhill, she holds all the cards, doesn't she? She could easily put the attention on the rest of you while making herself disappear. She said herself that she is only out for her own self-interest. If they figure out what your group has been up to, do you really expect her to stay loyal?"

"She's my friend, okay? And yes, I _do_ trust her. Do you have a problem with that?"

Kyubey shook his head. "You humans really do fascinate me. You are able to base your actions off of such illogical and variable concepts like friendship."

"If this is all you came over here to talk to me about, why don't you just go?"

"I'm merely trying to point out how hopeless all of this is. The chance of actually getting Homura out is very slim, and you are all taking a huge risk by trying. But of course, there _is_ another way." His little red eyes glistened, and Madoka stared back at him. "If you want, you have the power to put an end to all of this right here and right now, and none of your friends would have to be in danger anymore. You could make it so that not only Homura was free, but you could make it so they completely forgot about her existence. Or, you could wish for something else. It's completely up to you. You have so much potential, I can guarantee that anything you asked for would come true."

"I-I'm not making a contract with you! I promised Homura I wouldn't. Besides, I trust my friends, and no matter what you say, we _are_ going to be able to help her!"

"Then I guess it can't be helped. I thought I would at least try." He turned and started walking back to the far side of the railing. "If you do end up changing your mind, just let me know." His head turned back for just a moment and his red eyes peered at her through the darkness. "I'll be waiting." He then jumped off of the balcony and disappeared.

When Madoka went back inside, the kitchen light was on. Leiko was inside, standing by the stove and just starting to take a teapot off of the burner. Madoka did not say anything at first, but watched as she poured the tea into two cups. _Did she make that for me?_

Madoka went inside with a heavy step so that she would be heard. Leiko turned towards her and flinched, then quickly grabbed one of the tea cups and held it out to her. "Here." she said. "I made it with valerian root. You said you were having trouble sleeping, right? Well, it helps."

Madoka took the cup from her and smiled. "Thank you."

Leiko's eyes shifted away nervously and she coughed into her hand. "Valerian is either derived from the personal name Valaria or the Latin verb _valere_ , meaning " _worth"_ The earliest known records of its use go all the way back to ancient Greece where it was described in Hippocrates' journal. The eighteenth-century physician Galen prescribed it as a cure for insomnia. It's been shown to relieve anxiety and cause drowsiness, proven as a safe non-habit-forming sleep aid." Leiko coughed into her hand once again as Madoka just stared at her through her lengthy text-book explanation. "As a side note, it also contains the chemical _'actinide_ ' which is more prominently known to be found in catnip, therefore making valerian root itself an effective cat attractant..." Leiko blushed and her voice started trailing off. "Actinide is not known to have any... effects on... humans..." Her eyes shifted downward and she cleared her throat, then lifted her hand up to readjust her glasses.

Madoka gave her a bright smile and laughed, "You sure do know a lot of random stuff don't you?"

"Well... I read a lot. Anyway, that will help you sleep." Leiko picked up her own cup and started walking away.

"Hang on." Madoka said. "Why don't you sit with me for a little while?"

"Well, I..." Madoka did not really give her an option, as she grabbed onto her hand and led her over to the dining room table.

* * *

"Alright, it's ten o'clock, I can't let you sleep anymore!" Keiji looked up groggily as his wife pulled the covers off of him. "Late night at the office again? I didn't hear you come in last night."

"Yeah..." he said as he rubbed his eyes and started reaching for his glasses over on the nightstand. "I didn't get in until around five." He pulled his wife closer as she leaned in for a kiss.

"I thought you said you weren't going to have to do that anymore."

"Yeah, well something came up..." He yawned. "Actually, I kind of got caught up in something, is what I should say." His wife had gotten used to his rather vague explanations regarding anything related to his work. She understood that a lot of what he worked on was meant to be top secret, not even discussed with close family members, but she at least knew it was military-related.

"Anyway, don't forget. You told Makoto you would take him to his ballgame."

"Oh, right... what time was that again?" He got up and went over to the dresser to start picking out his clothes.

"He needs to be on the field at noon. Oh, and I just finished cooking breakfast, it's on the table already."

Kaiji finished dressing and after his wife left the room he went for his cellphone and dialed a number. It rang for a while before picking up the voice mail: "You've reached detective Ishida Tashikowara. I'm not available at the moment, but please leave your name, number, and a brief message." _~beeeeep_

"Hey bro, it's me. Sorry I missed the party last weekend. Busy at the office, you know how it is... Hey listen, I need you to look into something for me. It might not be anything too important, but get back to me when you can. Thanks." He flipped his phone closed, and with that taken care of he proceeded down to the kitchen. His wife and son were both already seated at the table.

"Key kiddo." Kaiji said, patting his son on the head as he walked past. He went right for the coffee maker on the kitchen counter which already had a fresh pot sitting inside it.

"Morning daddy! Guess what!" Makoto said.

"What!" Kaiji said back, mildly feigning enough excitement to match his son's.

"Coach says he's going to let me pitch the last three innings. You're going to be there, right?"

"Yup," Kaiji said as he sat down, "I've got the entire day off." and he gave his son a wink.

Kaiji was never much of a sportsman himself. When he was his son's age, he tended to be the kid who got picked last for teams in gymnastics class. Makoto was the complete opposite, though. He was still young enough that Kaiji could help him practise (though work often got in the way of that), but he imagined once Makoto hit his teen years he likely would not be able to keep up anymore either way. That is where uncle Ishida would come in; he was always the athlete of the family but did not have any sons of his own. He just had two daughters, the younger of whom was at least somewhat of a tomboy herself and every bit as interested in sports as Makoto was.

After breakfast, Kaiji figured he had some time to spend on the research he did not finish last night. He still did not know what Kyoko could mean, but a few ideas were creeping up on him which he wanted to look into. Thinking back on what had happened with the keyboard, he had partially managed to convince himself he dreamed the whole incident. The stress had just gotten to him is all. The moral dilemma related to what his work entailed, and the long hours had caused him to have a minor hallucination. What else could it have been? A ghost?

Though, another part of him reminded himself that his notions of what was possible in the world had been drastically shifted at the discovery of Homura's abilities. If a girl who could teleport, see into the future, and instantly tear a room apart was possible, then why not ghosts? Besides, hallucination or no, two things had come out of it. The verification that " _Kyoko"_ Sakura might actually mean something, and the word " _cult"_

He opened up a search engine and typed " _Kyoko Sakura cult"_ just to see what would come up. At first, nothing notable. The first five results were for a brand of pens that bore the name " _Sakura"_ and were sold by a company called _Cult Pens_.

Kaiji then thought for a moment how to narrow down the search. He decided to try " _Sakura cult Mitakihara"_ The first few results were for those same Sakura pens, but then he noticed an old news headline posted in the Mitakihara Daily that read: _"Kazamino_ _ **cult**_ _leader 'Father_ _ **Sakura**_ _' found dead with wife and daughter"_

Kaiji clicked the link and started reading. He vaguely remembered hearing about this a couple of years ago, but the story had slipped from his mind over the years. Kazamino was a neighboring city to Mitakihara, so the story of Father Sakura's church and the preacher's ultimate plunge into insanity was a popular local news story for a short time.

The phenomenon happened a couple years back, when out of nowhere Father Sakura, who was just an ordinary preacher, managed to amass a great following seemingly overnight. This kind of thing was not entirely unheard of, for he was not the first crazed preacher in the world to gather a cult following and he certainly would not be the last.

The thing that was particularly interesting about this case, however, is that it did not fit the usual scenario. First of all, it usually takes time for one of these false prophets to gather their following, but in the case of Father Sakura it happened overnight. Furthermore, the leaders of these cults usually gain followers by preaching outrageous and often violent ideas. In this case, as far as any investigators could tell, his teachings were rather simple: be kind to your fellow man; be honest and have integrity; do not turn on someone over a simple difference in beliefs.

In the end, the situation ultimately resolved itself and the file was closed, when the preacher killed himself along with his wife and youngest daughter. According to the news article, apparently he had an older daughter who somehow managed to escape her crazed father's wrath. Kaiji searched around for a while, trying to find her name, but for the most part no sources gave the name of either of the two daughters. He did find one link that named the younger daughter who had been killed " _Momo"_ but there was nothing else on this older daughter other than the fact that she was still alive and should be around fourteen or fifteen years old.

What connection could all this have to Kay, though? He suddenly laughed at himself. None, of course. It was not like a name like "Sakura" was very uncommon. Besides, Kay Sakura was from Tokyo, which was a good distance away from Kazamino, and, based on her resume and work history, she had not come anywhere near this side of Japan even once before taking the assignment with Test Subject One...

He thought about it... Tokyo was a good distance from Kazamino. What was not a good distance from Kazamino, however, was Mitakihara Town: where Homura lived. Not only that, it seemed that Father Sakura's eldest daughter was right around the same age as Homura… Therefore, it was possible that...

His phone suddenly started ringing, snapping him out of his thoughts. It was Ishida.

"Ishida, good morning." Kaiji said, holding the phone up against his ear.

"Hey Kaiji, just got your message." Ishida had a thick voice to match his well built stature. It was kind of funny, Kaiji was actually the older brother, but if one was to see the two of them standing side-by-side one would guess the opposite. Kaiji was a bit taller but rather thin. Hisbrother may have stood a few inches shorter than him but he was built like an ox and had a much harder and matured face. Not only that, Ishida had two kids, the older having two years on Makoto, and his younger _tomboy_ daughter was a few months behind him.

"Don't worry about the party, I know how busy your big government research job keeps you and all that." Ishida laughed. "Anyway, you said you needed something? What is it?"

"This might sound kind of weird, but I was wondering if you knew anything about the Kazamino Cult."

"Kazamino Cult? Oh, you're talking about that preacher who out of nowhere ended up with a huge following, then later went nuts and killed his family, right? Well, what about it?"

"I was curious about his family members… It's difficult to explain why exactly right now, but I'll tell you about it some time."

"You mean when we're not on the phone? Heh, sometimes I wonder what kind of stuff you're mixed up in. Anyway, if I recall correctly he had a wife and two daughters. When he went kablooey he killed his wife and the younger daughter. The older one wasn't home at the time but was found on the scene later."

"Do you know what her name was, by any chance?"

"Her name? No, I wouldn't know that. I wasn't actually on that case. It's just that it was high-profile enough that it got talked about around the station a lot, back when it all happened."

"Oh I see, I was just hoping you might, is all. I'm kind of grasping at straws over here to be honest with you."

"Hm, well bro, you got my interest piqued to say the least. Can't wait to hear what this is all about… Does it have something to do with your work?"

"Possibly, but probably not. Honestly, it's more of a passing curiosity than anything."

"Oh, actually I just remembered something about Father Sakura's daughter. She ended up going missing. She was under protective custody, but somehow managed to get away from the officers who were assigned to her. Anyway, she ran away and disappeared completely on that same night. I only remember this because there was a missing person's report out on her for a while… actually… if you want her name I can probably get it."

"Sure, if it's not too much trouble."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm at the station right now so it's no problem. Just a quick search, she should still be listed in the system somewhere. Last name Sakura, right?"

"You got it."

Kaiji waited as he heard his brother clicking around. "Alright, not sure if one of them is her, but I got three missing female Sakuras between ages twelve and fifteen. We've got a Fuja Sakura, a Yuki Sakura, and a Misato Sakura."

"Try just doing a full system search for a Kyoko Sakura, and narrow the age to fourteen to fifteen."

"Hu? Kyoko Sakura? Where did you get that from? Eh, anyway, Hang on a sec… Nope, nothing on record for a Kyoko Sakura, sorry bro…"

"Oh, okay. Well, thanks for trying." Kaiji said, a bit disappointed that it seemed he still was not going to get his answers.

"Oh wait, what the hell am I thinking. Just hold on a minute, let me check something else real quick." Kaiji waited a couple minutes while his brother clicked around. "Alright, looks like I found your mystery girl. It was Misato Sakura."

"Misato Sakura? That's the name of the preachers oldest daughter? Are you sure?"

"Yup, one hundred percent, looking at it right here. Her last known address matches father Sakura's. She escaped police custody after a double homicide and suicide at her place of residence, no known whereabouts after that point."

"Ishida, do one more thing. It's probably nothing, and I'm probably being crazy. But are there any paper files related to the Kazamino Cult incident?"

"What? Well, yeah, but they would be in Kazamino, they wouldn't be here in my precinct. Even if they were, do you have any idea how big a pain in the ass it would be to dig up a closed case like that from two years ago?"

Kaiji grinned to himself. "Well, I'm getting ready to be a pain in your ass then, because I need you to see if they can dig those files up and fax them over to you."

"Uh… Yeah, I don't know if…"

"Come on, pull some strings, I know you can do it… besides," Kaiji laughed, "you still owe me for helping you close that case a few months ago." Kaiji was referring to a time Ishida asked him to alter some test results which allowed Ishida to get a warrant to raid a known yakuza leader who had been managing to dance around the system and avoid the law.

Ishida let out a long sigh. "So, you're calling out the favor on something like this huh? I mean, I can do it, but it's not like the paper files are going to have anything that's not on here. Why don't I just print out the files I have on my computer and send them to you?"

"I need the original case files. Just do it for me, okay?"

"Alright fine, but we're even after this. And it's going to take a little while, I'll call you when I'm done."

* * *

 _"Send in Test Subject One."_ came Dr. Mono's voice over the intercom. Homura stood in one of their white hospital gowns with two unarmed guards standing at her sides. It seemed her enemy had learned their lesson about bringing weapons into her reach, although they at least still had tasers strapped to their sides. At least they had agreed to not try and restrain her, and Homura agreed not to cause them any trouble in return.

She never would admit it, or flat out ask for it, but she also wished she had her TV back, and the deal they gave before is that they would return her privileges if she cooperated with them. Well, soon enough it may not matter anymore. She had friends on the outside, and surely they were working on a plan to get her out. She had a few cards up her own sleeve as well, or more specifically, there were a few cards stored behind her shield. Her enemy did not know about that particular ability of hers yet, and she was careful to keep her trump card hidden.

When the metal door let out its beeps and hissed open, Homura stepped inside. When she realized the guards had not followed her in, she turned back to them with a raised eyebrow. They just stood there with a stationary posture, outside the doorway. "Staying outside this time, huh?" she said, then shrugged and turned back into the testing room. The metal door soon hissed and slid shut behind her.

She looked around the room she was in. There was a mirror on the far side which she knew had a group of researchers sitting behind it. The floor had four Xs made of tape which were positioned in the shape of a t. The cross of the t had a yellow and a green X, the longer side had a red and a blue X with a camera stationed at the far end.

On the left wall there was a table with a glass of water and a small pill bottle sitting atop it. Homura walked up to the table and looked at the bottle. It was unlabeled, but she shook it to verify that there were pills inside. She looked over to the window with a raised eyebrow.

 _"Those are daily supplements we would like you to start taking."_ said Dr. Mono's voice. " _Your current living arrangements do not allow you any exposure to sunlight which can cause certain deficiencies which those supplements will make up for. You can go ahead and take one now."_

"I don't think so." said Homura, and she set the small bottle back down on the table. Then she looked over at the mirror. "Now, what ridiculous tests do you have for me so I can get back to my room? Teleportation? Which X do you want me to start on?"

 _"We would like for you to take one of your supplements first."_

Homura walked over to the yellow X and pointed to the green one. "You want me to teleport to the green one, correct?" There was a long silence during which Homura just stared at herself in the mirror. "Well?"

 _"If you would rather not take the supplements now, that is fine. But we will ask you to take them back to your room with you. You will need to start taking them once a day."_

"If you say the word ' _supplement'_ one more time I'm going to get pissed... I'm transforming now, so we can get this over with." She crossed her arms over her chest and started the transformation process.

The hospital gown started rippling as if a strong wind was blowing against it, then it started to tear away and dissipated into nothing as it tore away from her body. Her nude form stood surrounded in rainbow light for a very brief moment before a set of black ribbons appeared around her. They wrapped around her limbs and body before letting out a bright burst of light which left her standing in her magical girl attire.

 _"Homura, before teleporting would you please hold up your shield where it can easily be seen from the mirror."_

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at herself in the mirror. She generally hated taking orders from these people, but she especially hated taking them from Dr. Mono. She wanted to turn down the request just to spite him. Besides that, she did not like giving them information on how her abilities worked… Well, the most important thing to keep secret was the existence of her SoulGem. The shield could even serve as a decent distraction, as they were likely to think the shield itself was the source of her power.

She lifted her forearm and showed her shield to the mirror. Her eyes narrowed even further with the hatred of obeying the request. Then, she let the gears spin and stopped time. She walked over to the green X, glancing at the camera lens as she crossed its path. She guessed it was a hyper-speed camera, and they were trying to catch any motion between the two points as she ' _teleported'_ between them. If she thought there was actually any chance of the camera picking up her movement while time was stopped, she would have found a way to either go above it or below it in order to throw off their experiment. She doubted that was the case though, and thus did not bother with any of that.

When she reached the green X, she resumed time and faced the mirror once again.

 _"Thank you for being cooperative with us today."_ came Dr. Mono's voice.

"Yeah, no problem." Homura said dryly, then pointed over to the red X. "Red and blue now?"

 _"Please, if you would."_

Homura walked over to the red X and stopped time. Then, unseen, she walked towards the camera which had the blue X on the floor right in front of it. Upon reaching the X she was tempted to grab the camera and smash it to pieces. She did not enjoy the fact that she was allowing herself to be so cooperative, and part of her wanted to give them a reminder that she was not some complacent little lab rat. At least she had those pills that she could continue refusing to take, which gave her at least some sense of control.

She resumed time then asked "Okay, is that all? Can I go back to my room now?"

 _"That is all for this room. We have a couple more tasks for you, however. Please go back to the door so the guards may escort you to the next room."_ Homura let out an irritated sigh and rolled her eyes as she turned back to the door. _"Please take your supplements with you."_

"There's no point, I'm never going to take any of them… do you really think I'm going to take anything you people give to me?"

 _"If you are worried about us using drugs on you, I can assure you that is not what our intentions are with those pills."_

Homura did not respond, and instead just stood in front of the metal door, waiting for it to open. She left the pills on the table, untouched. After a couple minutes the door finally slid open, revealing the same two guards who were still standing behind it. One of them put a finger to his earpiece and seemed to be listening to something. He nodded, then walked past Homura, into the test room, and grabbed the pills off of the table.

The other guard said: "Right this way, Miss Akemi." while giving her a friendly smile as he stood to the side and gestured down the hall.

Homura brushed her hair to the side and strolled right past him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

It seemed there had been some slight changes in her " _escort"_ personnel. In the past the guards had been rather laconic and uncommunicative with her. Now it seemed they were trying to be more personal as they escorted her down the hall. Or rather, at least one of them was.

"They are fixing your room up right now." the guard to her left said. He was young, probably in his mid-twenties, and seemed to have a rather cheery disposition, full of smiles and good about trying to make eye contact with her as he spoke. "My superior wanted me to let you know they're returning your TV privileges and replacing everything that was broken. So it should be a little more comfortable for you in there now."

"Fantastic." Homura said, dryly. Not really feeling in the mood to return his courtesies. "What are they planning for this next test room?"

"Well, in my position, I'm not given specific details, but I think it is just a physical examination. Just to make sure your health is keeping up. I think they are also planning to put some exercise equipment in your room to help with that as well."

They reached a metal door at the end of the hall, and stopped. The other guard, who was a bit older and was of the more usual silent guard brand, waved to the camera that was stationed above the door. There was the familiar series of beeps and hisses as the door slid open, and revealed an identical hallway.

"Well anyway, I know you are Homura Akemi; my name is-"

"I don't want to know your name." Homura cut him off.

He grinned. "Kotaro Sakazaki." Homura just rolled her eyes in response. "I'm actually going to be your full-time escort from now on, that's why I thought you should know... Can I call you Homura?"

"Akemi is preferable."

"Very well then, Miss Akemi." Kotaro said with a slight bow of his head.

Halfway down the hall, they stopped at another door. "Alright, here we are."

It was not the usual sliding metal door that she was used to seeing. It was just a regular door, which was indeed made of metal, but had a doorknob with a small foggy window above it, and a panel to the left with keys numbered from zero to nine. The silent guard walked to the panel, punched in a couple numbers, and a click could be heard. Kotaro then held the door open for Homura and gestured inside with a gentlemanly demeanor. Homura flung her hair to the side as she walked past him.

Inside was not the kind of test room she was used to: it actually looked more like a hospital room. There was a small padded hospital table with a white sheet over it, a countertop with a sink and two rows of draws, and a shelf that held several pieces of medical equipment which Homura could not identify. On the far wall there was a familiar two-way mirror like everywhere else, other than her own room. She knew that, like the others, there was currently a group of scientists sitting behind it and taking notes on her.

There were two people already in this room, each wearing a matching white lab coat. One was a balding middle-aged man, and the other was a younger female. Homura assumed the man was a doctor, and the girl was his nurse.

Homura eyed the doctor suspiciously. He gave her a professional smile, but behind it Homura could see he was a bit intimidated by her. She wondered, _could he be._..?

"Homura Akemi, please take a seat." He said, gesturing to the padded hospital table. His voice was not right. It was not Dr. Mono after all... _too bad_. Homura had a feeling she would never be given the opportunity to meet that specific member of the lab staff face-to-face. Although, she would really like to be given that opportunity, so she could show him exactly what she thought of his _accommodations_.

"I'd rather stand." Homura said, her eyes glancing around the room suspiciously. The guards followed her in, then took a stationary posture on either side of the door which they locked behind themselves.

The doctor cleared his throat. "We are just doing some basic tests, it's nothing to worry about..." Homura simply stared at him. "We are going to check your pulse, blood pressure, and take a blood sample. We would also like for you to transform so we can take a sample of your clothing." After a few more moments of Homura refusing to respond, the doctor added: "As soon as we are finished you will be free to return to your room. It won't take long once we get started."

Homura glanced back to the two guards stationed by the door, Kotaro gave her a grin. The other guard remained motionless as always. She then walked over to the table and said: "Alright, let's just get this over with." as she sat down.

* * *

Sayaka woke up to find Kyoko was already out of bed. She stretched as she sat up, then walked out into the living room where she found Kyoko practicing her enchantment trick on Mami. "You're finally up." Kyoko said. "Sleep in much?"

"Well I can't really help that." Sayaka said, folding her arms. "I couldn't get a wink of sleep with you snoring all night!"

"Huh, really?" Kyoko asked. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I did…" Sayaka replied, letting her head hang low as her eyes darkened. "At least ten times…"

"Heh, sorry bout' that. Anyway, take a seat, I really need two people to practise this properly."

"Uh… sure…" Sayaka said, looking around. "Hey where did Madoka and Leiko go?"

Kyoko grinned, but Mami was the one to answer: "They both went down to the coffee shop together."

"Seriously?" Sayaka asked.

"Yeah," Kyoko said, still grinning, "it was hilarious, at first Leiko was all-" She let her eyebrows sink down into a bored expression to mimic Leiko. " _'Is it your mission in life to constantly pester me with these pointless errands?'_ , but Madoka pretty much demanded that she'd come along… It was kind of surprising, Leiko didn't give as much resistance as I would have expected."

"It seems those two are becoming close." Mami said with a smile as she stirred her cup of tea. "They were up pretty late last night talking to each other."

"Heh, that's Madoka." Sayaka laughed. "She really seems to have a way with the dark and brooding type."

"Yeah, guess so." Kyoko said, returning the laughter. "Eh, anyway. Let's get started on this… Tomorrow's the big day, you know?"

"Yeah…" Sayaka glanced at the bandage that was still around Kyoko's neck. She always worried about her when she had to go to the lab. She trusted Kyoko, but she knew how dangerous it was, and was always worried about the possibility of her getting caught. "This will be the last time right? I mean, if the thing with the witch's barrier works out."

Mami nodded. "Yes, that's why we have to make sure Homura understands what the plan is. We can't risk her trying to get rid of the GriefSeed, or simply destroying the witch once it hatches."

They each nodded their agreement, then Kyoko said: "Alright, well here it goes." She picked up a pencil and started writing something out. "I always know what is actually written on the paper." Kyoko explained. "I can either enchant a single person to see something else, or I can enchant the paper itself so that the enchantment will affect anyone who sees it. I think that second option is the best way to go, because when I do it I can make it so the enchantment won't affect Homura."

To Mami, it looked like Kyoko was drawing that simple picture of a cat's face she had drawn before. Sayaka's face went red however, and she put a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. Kyoko grinned, and Mami looked back and forth between the two of them. At first she had a confused expression, but then she got the idea of what Kyoko was doing and her eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Okay! What did you write?" Mami interrogated, folding her arms and giving Kyoko a scolding look.

"Hang on, we're not done yet!" Kyoko laughed, and passed the pen over to Sayaka.

"Haha! Um… okay, let me see…" Sayaka started writing something back, the entire time her lips were curled up, trying to hold back laughter. To Mami it looked like Sayaka had drawn a picture of a flower. When she slid the paper back over to Kyoko, Kyoko had a neutral expression, until she finished reading what was actually written there. Then she and Sayaka made eye contact with each other and they both burst into a mutual fit of laughter.

Kyoko picked up the pencil and started writing something back, laughing the entire time she was doing it. Mami's expression grew darker and darker, knowing that she was the butt of some unknown joke between the two of them. Sayaka's second response warranted another fit of laughter between the two, and Mami finally had enough. "Alright! give me that!" she said, snatching the paper up. She held it up and looked at it, but all she could see were some crudely drawn pictures including a cat, a flower, a dog, and a smiley face.

She waved the paper at Kyoko. "You disenchant this right now!" She demanded. Kyoko fell over on her side, and rolled around on the floor, stuck in a fit of laughter.

"Okay, okay! Careful what you wish for!" Kyoko laughed as she snapped her fingers. The page disenchanted, and Mami's face went completely red as she read over what was written about her.

Mami started ripping up the paper as she hollered at the two of them: "I'm so glad to see how serious the two of you are being about this!" She was mainly targeting Kyoko who was rolling around on the floor, but then she turned to Sayaka. "Honestly! I at least expected better from you!"

"I'm sorry!" Sayaka said, practically crying. "I can't help it!"

After a few harsh words from Mami, they eventually got back to a more serious practise session.

"Hey I was thinking." Sayaka said, after they completed another round of successful note passing "Why don't you just enchant Homura to see a message on the paper? I mean, the way we are doing it now, the message is going to be left on the paper after you leave so it's kind of like leaving evidence behind… besides that, wouldn't it be easier than permanently trying to hold an enchantment on the paper?"

"Well, you're right, but there's a couple reasons why I wouldn't want to do it like that. First of all, it's much harder to create actual words through enchantments, especially in Japanese. It requires way too much precision and I'm just not that good at it yet. Plus, doing it this way, Homura is also able to write back to me. She wouldn't be able to do that if I was simply showing her my enchanted messages."

"Oh, okay that makes sense." Sayaka said, and then they heard the front door open.

Madoka was first to enter. In one hand she was holding a drink carrier with four coffees in it, and she waved with the other. "Hello everyone, we're back!" she said with a smile.

The three of them exchanged their greetings, but stopped when they noticed Leiko slink into the room after Madoka. She had a deep red blush on her face and kept her head down as she quickly walked through to the computer room… There was something different about her…

"Hey, what's with your hair?" Kyoko blurted out before Leiko managed to make her escape.

Madoka set the drinks down and quickly went to grab Leiko by the arm and lead her back into the room. "Come on, don't be shy!" Madoka laughed, but that only served to deepen Leiko's embarrassment.

"I've got a lot of work to do." Leiko said dryly, her eyes shifting around the room that she was now being forced to stand in. Her hair had two thick braids which ran past her ears and went down to her shoulders, each had green ribbons tied to the ends. The rest of her long white hair remained straight around the back of her head, and her bangs had been styled over the top of her forehead.

"I convinced her to let me do her hair for her!" Madoka explained. "What do you think? Looks good right?"

"Oh, yeah! Super cute!" Sayaka said, putting a thumb up.

"I didn't have a choice... I was forced into this." Leiko said, forcing a neutral expression, but she could not hide the blush that was creeping onto her cheeks.

"Well, I think it looks great!" Mami said, smiling. Leiko did her best to just hold her neutral expression, and Sayaka and Kyoko leaned in and started whispering and grinning to each other. Mami shot the two of them a scolding look, and they quickly sat upright again.

"I'm getting back to work now…" Leiko said as she turned away. "I've wasted enough time with this foolishness." Once Leiko was fully turned away, Kyoko puffed up her chest and started miming Leiko's words with a comedically serious expression on her face, which earned a fresh burst of laughter from Sayaka, and another scolding look from Mami.

Madoka brought the drinks over to the table and sat down. "I didn't know what you all would want so I just took my best guess." Madoka said with a smile, as she passed the drinks around.

"Thanks, I needed a boost!" Sayaka said, taking the cup and pulling the tab up right away.

Kyoko watched as Leiko retreated into the computer room, and once she was out of sight, Kyoko confronted Madoka: "Sooo, the two of you seem to be getting along pretty well." she said with a grin.

Madoka blushed a little as she fidgeted with the lid of her coffee. "Well sure, we are friends after all. I mean, she doesn't have great social skills, so she comes off a bit rough around the edges, and I don't think she is totally honest with herself as far as her feelings go… but she actually is really nice!"

Sayaka grinned. "Madoka, I almost get the impression that you like her. Homura's going to be really jealous you know."

"Hey! It's not like that." Madoka insisted, trying to keep her voice down. "We're just friends!"

"Oh man! When I decided to take you as my wife I had no idea how much competition I was going to have." Sayaka laughed as she put an arm around Madoka's shoulder and forced her into a headlock.

"C-cut it out!" Madoka said, nearly spilling her coffee as she tried to push Sayaka away.

Kyoko leaned back and palmed her face as she watched the two of them. "Oh geez… you two…"

"Don't tell me you're getting jealous too!" Sayaka teased as she locked Madoka under her arm.

Kyoko just shrugged her shoulders and scratched the side of her nose, blushing lightly. "Nah, I'm a big girl. I know how to share."

After the struggle raged on for a while, and after several close calls of coffee being spilled on Mami's carpet, Mami cleared her throat to grab their attention. Once she had it, her suddenly stern expression returned back to a smile as she said: "I think we should get back to studying. Besides helping Kyoko practise her enchantment spells, it wouldn't be a bad idea to study more psychology terms as well as come up with some related conversation topics."

"Hah, sorry, you're right." Sayaka said, scratching the back of her head.

"Um, is anyone hungry?" Madoka asked. "I can go prepare something in the kitchen."

"Oh, well I could eat!" Kyoko said right away.

"You can always eat…" Sayaka said dryly.

Kyoko was getting ready to throw some retort back at Sayaka, but Leiko suddenly came bursting back into the room. Every head turned in her direction, and they could all see the seriousness on her face: "We've got problems." she said, " _BIG_ problems."

* * *

Kaiji watched the baseball game with half a mind. He was too preoccupied thinking about this whole Kyoko Sakura situation. The game was in its second-to-last inning, and so far the two teams were tied at five runs. Makoto was just coming up to bat when Kaiji heard his phone ring. His hand instantly dove into his pocket to retrieve it, and when he saw that it was Ishida calling he flipped it open right away. "Ishida, how's it going?"

"Hey… Kaiji, I just got the files you were asking about." Ishida said.

"Really? Wow, that was fast. Guess you were overplaying how much of a pain in the ass it was going to be after all, huh?" Kaiji laughed. He was trying to sound casual, but actually he was extremely anxious to get a hold of the files himself.

"Yeah… well, like I said, you managed to pique my interest earlier, so I got right on it…" There was something wrong with Ishida's tone of voice. It did not sound like his normal controlled self. He seemed a bit distant like he was in deep thought about something. "Anyway…" he spoke slowly, "I went ahead and skimmed through the paper versions… like I said, you had me really curious… and, well…"

"Did you find something?" Kaiji asked, his own tone became serious and lost its playfulness.

"Yeah, I found something alright, and I have about a hundred questions for you now, but maybe we shouldn't do this over the phone?" He said that last part as more of a question, to find out if it really should not be over the phone after all.

"Hm, maybe not." Kaiji said, trying to keep somewhat of a casual tone to his voice, but his adrenaline was suddenly racing. There is one thing he did want to ask, and he really did not know if he could allow himself to wait. Not speaking over the phone was probably an unnecessary precaution anyway, so he just came right out with it. "Just give one hint… that name I mentioned before, ' _Kyoko'_. Did it turn up on the paper file?"

When Ishida answered Kaiji almost physically felt his heart sink in his chest and his mind started buzzing with the floodgate of questions it brought on. Ishida said: "Yeah, it was. In fact, the name ' _Kyoko Sakura'_ was all over this damn report, and you want to know what wasn't? Not one goddamn time? _Misato_ Sakura! But Kaiji, how did you…?"

"We should talk about this later." Kaiji said quickly. They may have said too much already but his mind was buzzing and preoccupied with way too many other things at this point.

"Yeah, you're right…" Ishida sighed. "Look, I'm off at four, do you want to meet up somewhere then? I can give you the files and you can see it for yourself too."

"Sure, that sounds good… How about the same place from before?"

Ishida was quiet for a while, then he answered: "Yeah, that's perfect… see you then."

Ishida hung up, and Kaiji was just lost in thought as he listened to the dial tone. What did all of this mean? He was now officially past the point of being able to convince himself it was all just a bunch of coincidences…

First, Dr. Endou makes wild claims about their computer systems being hacked, as well as expressing certain unmentioned doubts about the psychologist, Kay Sakura. Now, every suspicion Dr. Endou brought up to him has been confirmed with the revelation of one simple altered document. Someone wanted to hide the name ' _Kyoko Sakura'_ , a name that is very similar to Kay's name, and not only that… Homura actually called her _Kyoko_! There was no doubting that now… it was not just some random occurrence with no meaning behind it. Homura had called Kay 'Kyoko'! There was a connection, but he just did not know what it was.

Not to mention the voice he heard in the lab which led him to discovering all of this. He thought that was the part that bothered him the most. If it had turned out that the name "Kyoko Sakura" did not mean anything after all, then he could have gone on convincing himself that he just imagined the whole thing. Now, his little _delusion_ had been proven to be true, and he did not know how to take it. He was a rational man without a superstitious bone in his body, but he felt his world-view crumbling down around him. He did not have any time to dwell on that though, right now, his best course of action would be to try and find as many answers as he could, and hopefully start making sense of this mystery.

He watched as his son swung the bat and connected, sending the ball flying far into left field.

* * *

After the checkup in the doctor's office, Homura was taken back to her room. The doctor had done some tests she was somewhat used to undergoing from her life before becoming a Magical Girl, back when she was plagued with poor health and had spent much time in hospitals having similar tests done to her. That life was so far gone by now, that she did not even see that person who she used to be as a tangible part of herself anymore.

In the hospital room, they had checked her pulse, asked her to blow into a tube, checked her reflexes - all the normal stuff. Then, they had asked her to transform because they wanted to examine her clothing, as well as the shield that appeared when she transformed. She refused this request, and simply stood up and walked towards the door, stating that she was done for the day. There was some chatter from the guards earpieces, but they eventually let her through and escorted her back to her room.

She still refused to take the bottle of pills, so Kataro walked into her room with her and set it on her table. "That's pointless." she said to him.

He just shrugged and said: "Sorry, just following orders. Guess it's just in case you change your mind."

"Whatever." she said, dryly. "You can leave now."

"Alright then. See you in a couple of days, Miss Akemi." He bowed his head, then walked back to the front door. Once he and his silent companion were outside, it hissed and slammed shut.

Once they were gone, Homura took a good look around her room, looking for anything that had been changed while she was out. The most obvious change was that everything she had broken had been either fixed or replaced. She picked up the TV remote and hit the power button, and the new TV set came right on. She grudgingly had to admit that she was somewhat grateful for that. She then turned it off again and went back to scouring the apartment. Her bedsheets had been changed, the bathroom had been restocked with fresh towels and soap, and she even found a new package of colored pencils in her art drawer.

She went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, seeing that it was fully stocked with fresh food. As she looked over all the new food, her stomach let out an audible growl and she suddenly realized how hungry she was. She had been out of her room for longer than normal this time around, and thus had not eaten since having a small breakfast about six hours ago.

She opted for making herself a sandwich using the lunch meats, and lettuce and tomato she found. When that was done, she opened a bag of potato chips and dumped some onto the plate. She poured herself a glass of ice tea and then took it all back to the living room and sat in front of the TV set with them. She flipped to the news channel, wanting to have some connection to the outside world, and ate her food as she watched.

Nothing too interesting came up on the news. It seemed that the world was just going on normally as it always had while she was stuck in this room underground. She hoped Kyoko would come to her with an actual escape plan on her next appointment tomorrow. Homura was dying to get out of this place and go see Madoka again. She did not have any solid escape plans of her own.

Her only trump cards were the bombs she had stored in her shield space, and that was the reason she would not allow the doctors to examine her shield up close. Once she had used her trump card, it would be gone, so she had to make it count. She had plenty of pipe bombs, but considering these massive steel doors, they really would not do too much good for her. They may have been useful for destroying the two-way mirrors in the test rooms, but she had never tried it before because there was no guarantee for escape, and she had to keep them a secret.

There was one bomb in her arsenal, however, which she knew from experience could blow right through one of those doors, plus a whole lot more. However, if she set it off right here in the apartment, she would just end up blowing herself up right along with the door. Besides that, there was more than one door she had to get through, and she only had the one bomb that was capable of destroying them.

She finished her meal and brought the plate back to the kitchen. She scraped the remnants into the garbage disposal, then brought the plate to the sink. Her best idea for the bomb was to drop it down the garbage disposal. It would be a good way to create a distraction and cause confusion in the lab, but without a way through the doors, all of that would be pointless as well.

She went back to watching TV and continued to ponder her options. After thirty minutes of watching the news and seeing there was nothing important going on in the real world, she started flipping through the channels looking for something more entertaining to watch. She suddenly felt like she wanted to watch something funny, and she felt herself getting drowsy. She let out a loud yawn and muttered: _"Sleeeeepy."_ to herself, slurring the word comedically. Then she paused and started laughing.

 _Wait… what the hell... why did I say that?…_ She snapped herself out of the laughter and shook her head back and forth, but she felt a grin creeping up on her face. The idea that she was grinning made her laugh some more, but she quickly put her hand over her mouth to stifle it.

She stood up, and looked around the room, feeling that something was wrong. As her eyes glanced around the room, she focused on the fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling, and suddenly knew for sure that something was indeed wrong with her. The lights were more… colorful… like there was a soft rainbow glow coming off of them, and when she moved her head she felt her vision dragging very slightly.

 _They did something, s_ he realized, keeping her hand firmly locked over her grinning face. _Those bastards! They- but when?_

She quickly ran into the bathroom, once again feeling the urge to laugh but doing her best to keep it down. She did not even bother shutting the door, but went right to the toilet and stuck her fingers down her throat and leaned over as she forced herself to gag.

She had never tried to make herself vomit like this before, so she mostly just gagged and spit, but failed to actually retract the meal she had eaten thirty minutes ago.

She focused all her will on making her stomach turn, and stuck her fingers further down her throat until the point it was actually painful. She did not really focus on the pain though, her mind was more on how odd the feeling was, and it gave her that strange urge to laugh that had suddenly started plaguing her.

Finally, after another minute of holding her fingers down her throat and forcing herself to wretch, she vomited. She fell over the bowl, hugging it tightly as she expelled what she could from her stomach, and when she was finished she stood up and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was now a tangled mess and she had saliva all around her mouth which she wiped away onto the back of her sleeves. She looked into her own eyes, and saw her pupils were dilated to small black pin points. There was no doubt about it, she had been drugged. Yet, she came to this conclusion with a curious fascination, not feeling any anger or resentment over the fact.

Although, there was the stronger side of herself that knew it was not right, so she marched out of the bathroom to confront the camera and demand answers. As she stared up at the camera, she did not know what to say. She just felt sleepy, and felt that general sense of amusement about the situation. Her head bobbed back and forth as she stared, and then the intercom buzzed on.

"Homura, is everything alright?" Dr. Mono asked with a passive voice.

"Yoo _oouuu_ …" She pointed a wavy finger at the camera, as she swayed back and forth on her feet, "You did something! You drugged my foo _ood_!" Some of her words were coming out slurred, but she tried her best to ignore it.

"No, I assure you your food has not been altered in any way."

Homura bent over and let out a burst of laughter. "You didn't?" she asked, tilting her head to the side with childish curiosity.

"If you are feeling unwell we can send in a medic."

"No!" She smiled and put a thumb up. "I'm good!" Then she quickly turned away and ran back to her bedroom. She dove into her bed and hid her head under the pillow and closed her eyes. Some of the drug had gotten into her system, and whatever it was, it was very potent, but at least she managed to get rid of some of it. All she could do now is hopefully sleep it off. She also knew that she could no longer trust any of their food, so she was going to have to starve herself until she came up with something. Kyoko was coming back tomorrow. If there was an escape plan, she knew it had to happen soon.

* * *

 _Kyoko Sakura… Find her…_

What would happen once he did? He wondered. To whom did that voice he heard belong, and what connection did all of this have to Kay and Homura? He figured the only way to get the answers to these questions would be to do what the voice told him to do, and this would be the first step.

He took the folder from Ishida who sat on the park bench right next to him.

"I have a few theories." Ishida said. The sun was turning into a light shade of red as it began its descent towards dusk. Ishida had picked up his younger daughter before meeting Kaiji there, and she and Makoto laughed and chased eachother around the park while their parents sat nearby.

"Go ahead, it probably won't be right. As far as this Kyoko Sakura person goes, I know nothing about her right now, and it's hard to explain why exactly I need to find her."

Ishida nodded as he reached into his front pocket and retrieved a pack of cigarettes. He rubbed his bearded face before lighting it up, then said: "After the preacher died, there were some interviews with his followers." Apparently he had already taken the liberty of reading the file more thoroughly. "None of them could explain exactly why they had started following him in the first place, nor did they care about his teachings after his death. It was almost as if a spell had been lifted, and once he was gone they had all returned to their normal lives. There was never any explanation for what exactly had occurred in Kazamino those months. My best theory is that it was some form of mind control, and obviously the government would have an interest in something like that. Sounds kind of crazy, but that's the best theory I could come up with on my own."

"Believe it or not, my work has nothing to do with the preacher himself… Like I said, I really don't know what the connection is… Either way, it would be way too hard to explain, and I can't talk about it anyway."

"Hm, classified, huh?" Ishida asked, taking a drag of his smoke.

"Yup, afraid so." Kaiji laughed. He wished his brother was not a smoker, especially since he was a sort of role model for his own son. He figured Ishida's job as a detective could be pretty stressful, though. Kaiji had not felt too much stress with his own work until taking on this assignment with Homura. He use to love his work, but his current assignment didn't feel as though it was bringing him much joy. He did feel bad for her, but still managed to convince himself that this was all for the greater good. What would happen if he found Kyoko Sakura? Would it give him a path to improve Homura's situation, or would it put him in position to betray her? The biggest question of all, of course, was how exactly did Kay connect to all of this?

"Say, Ishida," Kaiji started, "have you ever been in a situation where you had to do something you felt was immoral, for the sake of doing your job or for the sake of a greater good?"

Ishida raised an eyebrow as he took another drag of his cigarette. "Sure… with this job, all the time."

"How do you know if you are making the right decision or not?"

"I guess it depends on the situation, but sometimes you don't really know. Sometimes you just have to make a choice and put your faith in it. Then, accept the consequences of your actions, whatever they may be. However, as far as morality is concerned, sometimes there are certain things you should never go against"

"For example?"

"That depends on you." After a few minutes of silence, Ishida stood up and stomped out his cigarette. "Well, it's getting late. The wife is going to kill me if we don't get back soon."

"Heh, same here." Kaiji said, as he also stood up. "Come on Makoto." he called. "Time to go now."

"You too, Yuki, come on."

Makoto and Yuki said goodbyes to each other, then to their respective uncles, and the group dispersed.

Kaiji did not know what he was going to do yet, as there were still too many unanswered questions for him to know much of anything. However, he did know that if this Kyoko Sakura girl was still out there, he needed to find her. It was too late for a trip to Kazamino today, but he now had the address of Kyoko's home, and he thought that would be the best place to start looking for the answers.


	11. Chapter 11

Madoka's face had gone as pale as it was the night before. She had managed to calm her anxiety somewhat since then, but the news that poor Homura-chan had been drugged brought it back ten-fold. Sayaka saw how distressed she was and put a compassionate arm over her shoulder and hugged her.

"Not only that," Leiko continued "a while ago I uploaded a program into the national law enforcement database which alerts me when certain keywords are used. I've included all of our names, and addresses, and anything else I thought might be important to know about." She looked over to Kyoko and adjusted her glasses "The program just notified me that someone did a full system search for 'Kyoko Sakura'." Madoka's face went even paler, and everyone else in the room other than Kyoko herself suddenly tensed up. "Normally, this wouldn't worry me too much, but the issue is the search was conducted by a 'Detective Ishida Tashikowara'... He is the brother of a man named Kaiji Tashikowara, who happens to be one of the lead researchers assigned to 'Test Subject One'."

"Damn it… then that means…" Sayaka held onto Madoka tighter, suddenly feeling rather anxious herself.

"So what?" Kyoko interjected, carelessly, and every head turned towards her.

"What do you mean, 'so what'?" Leiko hissed at her "Soooo... your cover's been blown!"

Kyoko scratched the side of her nose with a lethargic expression in her eyes "I thought you said you erased my identity?"

"I did… but you're clearly missing the point. The fact that they searched your name at all is a huge red flag that they are growing suspicious of Kay Sakura's identity."

"Even so," Mami interjected "How is it that they knew the name Kyoko Sakura in the first place?"

Leiko's arms folded "That's… A good question." Then she raised an eyebrow in Kyoko's direction "Do you have an explanation? You didn't say anything stupid while you were in there did you?"

Kyoko slammed a hand down on the table, which created a brief rattling sound as the plates and coffee cups rattled against its glass surface "Watch it, chick." She said, clearly not in the mood for taking any insults lying down. Sayaka knew Kyoko wasn't one to show fear or anxiety, so when she was in a situation that upset her she reverted to anger to vent her feelings. When she was like that, it was best not to get on her bad side, and she hoped that Leiko would get the point and back off.

All the same, Kyoko continued. "On the day of my first appointment, the first thing Homura did was say my name,'Kyoko', when she realized it was me. I managed to brush it off quick enough, and I thought no one would have noticed… but either way, that wouldn't explain how they got my full name, _Kyoko Sakura_."

The table pondered the issue, but it seemed Leiko had already come up with an explanation without having to give it any thought. "Its obvious… Homura told them."

"You mean on accident." Sayaka said, assertively.

Leiko shrugged "Who knows." But it was clear what she was implying.

"What are you saying?" Said Kyoko "What good would it do her to sell out the only people who can save her?"

"You think the lab wouldn't be interested in getting their hands on another Magical Girl? Let alone four? Who knows what kind of deal they would make with Homura for that kind of information."

"N-no!" Madoka cut in "Homura wouldn't do that!", but Leiko continued as she looked over to Kyoko.

"I mean, she already made it painfully clear how much she values _your_ life." She was referring to the bandage that was still around Kyoko's neck, but at this point Kyoko had heard enough.

She stood up and slammed her hand down on the table even harder than she had before "You just shut the hell up! Alright?" Kyoko spoke with a raised, but controlled voice. Yet, there was something murderous in her eyes, and it was enough to make Leiko shrink back into her shoulders "Homura didn't sell me out, so just get that stupid idea out of your head right now!"

"D-don't fight!" Madoka said, quickly.

"I'm just saying…" Leiko said calmly, adjusting her glasses "I don't see any other explanation."

Sayaka shot Leiko a look that told her to just drop it, but she wasn't sure if she actually got the message. She then grabbed onto Kyoko's hand with a soft touch, and pulled her back down. Kyoko looked down at her, and when she saw Sayaka's smile, her expression softened as well, and she allowed herself to be pulled back down.

"What about this drug?" Mami asked "Could that have caused her to start giving away information?"

"What the hell, Mami?" Kyoko said, leaning over the table "You too?"

"I'm not accusing Homura of anything." Mami said calmly "But we would be foolish not to consider all the possibilities."

"Galazadrin has been proven as an effective truth serum." Leiko said "So undoubtedly, if she is on it, they could easily get her to give our identities away. It's not as much of an issue for me, since she doesn't really know me, but that would be a disaster for the rest of you… However, Kaiji's brother searched Kyoko's name several hours _before_ Homura was reported to have taken the drug. So that is not the answer."

"Let's think about how else they could have gotten Kyoko's name." Sayaka offered "Maybe there is something obvious that we are not thinking of. I mean, we gave her alias the same last name- _great plan, by the way-_ maybe they just took a guess?"

"If we were talking about a simple internet search, then sure. He wouldn't have gone through the trouble of calling a favor from his detective brother just based off of some wild hunch, however. He had the name Kyoko Sakura in his head for some reason. The only two people who could have told him that name are either Homura, or Kyoko herself."

"Or, you." Kyoko said. Her arms were folded and it was clear the current topic of conversation was really pissing her off.

"Excuse me?" Leiko asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"There's three people who could have given this Kaiji guy my name. Me, Homura, and you." Kyoko raised her hands in the air "I mean, if we are looking at all the possibilities, let's look at all the possibilities! We would be _foolish_ not to, right?"

"That's ridiculous." Leiko said "What are you trying to say? Why would I do something like that?"

"I dunno, but it sure sucks getting accused of something you didn't do, doesn't it?"

Leiko folded her arms and returned Kyoko's glare "It's more likely that you said something _idiotic_ during one of your trips to the lab."

That was enough to rile Kyoko up again, she leaned over the table, slamming both hands down and staring hard at Leiko "You tryna pick a fight or somethin'?" She snarled at her.

Leiko leaned back and adjusted her glasses, giving Kyoko one of her classic condescending looks "If you're not going to say anything useful, why don't you just keep your mouth shut?"

"Oh, that's it!" Kyoko stood up, raising a single fist and using her other hand to roll up the corresponding sleeve "You're dead!"

"Kyoko! Don't!" Sayaka screamed, getting up and quickly wrapping her arms around Kyoko who practically jumped over the table. Sayaka wasn't quick enough, nor strong enough to stop the redhead, however, and Kyoko managed to get two solid fistfulls of Leiko's clothing and pulled her up to eye level.

Madoka had been fidgeting her hands around nervously through the entire encounter, but finally screamed, with tears streaming from her eyes "STOP IT! You shouldn't be fighting!" However, her words were not heeded, and when Kyoko started shaking Leiko back and forth by her hoodie, Leiko was ready to take things to the next level.

"Get the hell off of me!" She screamed. There was a sudden flash of light, and Leiko's hand shot forward with a balled fist which connected right under Kyoko's jaw. The magic enhanced blow caused both Kyoko and Sayaka to fall backwards, Kyoko landing on top of Sayaka.

Kyoko put a hand against the spot she had been struck and stared back at Leiko with murder in her eyes. Leiko's clothing had changed to her full Magical Girl attire. She was now standing in an outfit made mostly of black leather, besides a green scarf that was around her neck and had its ends trailing down to the center of her back. Her shirt had sleeves that went just passed her elbows, but it was cut short around her torso, leaving most of her stomach exposed. Normally, most of her figure was hidden by the loose clothing she tended to wear, but the tight leather of her Magical Girl attire revealed a rather sizable bust compared to her small stature.

Her SoulGem was normally worn as an earring, but while she was transformed it became a green piercing around her belly button. Each of her hands wore fingerless black leather gloves with metal studs on the knuckles, which were currently emitting strings of static electricity which buzzed as they shot into the air and disappeared. She had a black skirt to match the rest of her dark clothing, which was cut well over the knees, leaving most of her legs exposed besides her lower leg which were covered by heavy black combat boots.

There was another flash of light from Kyoko as she sprang back to her feet, leaving Sayaka still laying on the ground behind her "You're going to pay for that!" She screamed, and lunged at Leiko, her own Magical Girl costume appearing around her body mid leap.

Leiko took a defencive stance, with strings of static electricity emitting from her gloved fists, and prepared to strike.

"That's enough!" Mami shouted, as she stood. Kyoko was mere inches away from tackling Leiko, and Leiko's fist swung forward to counter the blow, but suddenly, yellow ribbons grabbed onto both of their arms. The ribbons pulled them each back a few steps, Leiko instantly gave up trying to resist and just stared Kyoko down with malice in her eyes as the ribbons wrapped around her arms. Kyoko, however struggled against the bindings enough that she managed to make it forward a few steps, which warranted more ribbons appearing around her legs and forearms.

The ribbons disappeared from the nonresistant Leiko, and she quickly folded her arms over her chest with her face glowing bright red, then rainbow light covered her body as she disenchanted her costume.

Kyoko, however, continued to struggle, screaming out curse words as the ribbons forced her arms behind her back and then forced her to her knees. Sayaka got up and wrapped her arms around the bound up, kneeling Kyoko, and held onto her tightly. "Come on, just relax!" Sayaka said to her in the softest voice she could manage. That put an end to Kyoko's cursing, but she still stared at Leiko with murder in her eyes.

Madoka was now openly weeping from her place at the table. She had been trying to stay strong through all the bad news about Homura, but now seeing her friends at eachothers throats like this was enough to put her over the edge. "W-we're all friends!" She said through her sobs "W-we're not suppose to fight each other like this!"

Leiko abruptly stomped back into the computer room and announced "I'm leaving."

"Leaving?" Sayaka asked suddenly, still holding Kyoko in her arms.

A moment later, Leiko appeared back out of the computer room, holding her bag "You all should understand by now. Our cover's been blown. The plan's off!"

"Yeah, whatever! Run away!" Kyoko screamed at her, but Leiko paid her no heed and went right for the door.

"No! Leiko, don't go!" Madoka said, getting up from her seat and running after her. She managed to grab onto Leiko's left hand, while her right hand was on the door. "Please don't leave! We need you, and besides, Kyoko's just upset! She didn't mean anything, A-and-"

"Need me for what?" Leiko said, her own voice was cold and emotionless "The plan is OFF! This is getting too risky, sorry, but I'm not sticking my neck out for someone I barely know any longer."

Tears were streaming freely from Madoka's eyes as she shook her head "Even if the plans off! Don't leave like this…" Her eyes sank away "We're your friends…"

Leiko scoffed and pulled her hand away "Just leave me alone." And before Madoka could say another word, Leiko was out the door. However, Madoka wasn't one to give up easily, and chased right after her.

Sayaka looked back and forth between Mami and the empty doorway a few times before finally setting her sights on Mami "Do something!" She said to her, but Mami just maintained her stance at the table, with her arms folded and a dark expression on her face.

* * *

Homura woke up and glanced over to the clock. Only a couple hours had passed.

She sat up and looked around the room, trying to judge her own mental state. She felt a bit light headed, but she had lost that obsessive urge to laugh at everything. She held her hands in front of her face and waved them around. Her body felt light, but for the most part everything seemed normal again.

When she stood up, and slogged over to the door of her bedroom, she realized a migraine accompanied her other symptoms. She thought she was more or less back to her normal self, though. She swallowed, and realized her mouth felt dry. She felt an urge to go to the kitchen and get a glass of water from the sink, but she didn't know if that could have been drugged as well.

She walked out into the living room, and sat down on the couch. She put her hands over her face and massaged her temples as her black hair fell all around her. She was in a bad situation, she didn't know what she could trust in order to avoid the drug, and what's more, they could simply gas her at any time and force it on her while she was unconscious. She wondered why they hadn't already tried to do that. Well, she knew her time was running out, she was at their mercy, and she needed to find a way out of here.

The intercom buzzed on "Homura, how are you feeling?" It was that dry monotone voice that she hated. Homura just ignored him. "Do you need us to send in a medic?"

Homura looked up at the nearest camera with narrow eyes. What kind of game are they playing? Was he trying to act as if he _hadn't_ drugged her food? What was the point of that? Did he really expect to fool her?

She glanced over to the bottle of pills which still stood unopened on the dining room table. Furthermore, why bother with the pills if they were just going to drug her food anyway? Then, she thought about how they had both hidden cameras and cameras which were out in plain sight. It was all for the purpose of misdirection.

She stood up, her black hair was in a tangled mess, falling all over her face "No… there's no need, I had an odd feeling earlier but it has passed…" Her sharp eyes took another glance one of the camera's as she made her way back to the kitchen "Perhaps something I _ate_ has upset my stomach."

She opened the refrigerator and looked at all the food it was stocked with. She had vomited up most of her meal from a couple hours ago, and she didn't have much to eat befor that either, so she was quite hungry. However, she was now stuck, unable to trust anything that was provided to her by them.

She took a good look at the pitcher of iced tea that was provided to her. It was almost all the way full, only missing enough for the one glass that she had poured for herself. Normally, she made the tea herself, and now that she thought about it, before she left for her testing this morning the pitcher was only about half way full. She tried to think back on if filling her pitcher of ice tea was something they normally did when they stocked her refrigerator, but she couldn't be certain.

She glanced back at the pills on the table… misdirection… would she have noticed the pitcher was full and not drink from it if they hadn't been pushing those pills on her? Maybe, and maybe not. It was hard to say. She closed the refrigerator door, she may have been hungry, but she could hold out for a while. She needed to think things over a little more and decided if it was safe or not.

The intercom buzzed on "Homura, would you be willing to take your supplements now?" Dr. Mono asked. She snatched the bottle up from the table, then walked back to the kitchen. She gingerly tossed it down the garbage disposal and shut the draw again, before heading back to the couch to sit in front of the TV.

"I'm not taking anything you give to me." She said as she sat down and turned on the TV.

"Homura, you realize the situation you are in, don't you?" Homura remained quiet as she stared intensely at the TV set, not really registering any of the picture or sound that was coming out of it. "If there's something that we want you to take, there are other ways of making you take it. We could simply turn the gas on at any time and force feed you while you are out. So you understand, it is pointless to resist our requests."

"So, you've finally dropped the charade and are just openly threatening me now. How nice. It's a breath of fresh air to at least get some honesty out of you people for a change. So, what was actually in that pill bottle anyway? The same stuff you drugged my ice tea with?" She wasn't one hundred percent sure if the ice tea actually was what was contaminated, although she had a strong suspicion. She just threw that out there to gauge the doctor's reaction. If they decided to gas her, there wasn't anything she could do about that one way or the other, but she could only go so long without food and water so she would like to be able to make a judgement on if any of it were safe or not.

"The bottle only had suppliments. Vitamins that you are likely lacking in because of your current housing situation."

"And the tea?"

"You're suspicions are unfounded, we have not altered any of your supplies. Whatever it is you are accusing us of, I promise it is all in your imagination."

Homura would love the option to just storm out of the room, and put an end to the conversation, but that was quite impossible. Anywhere she went, they had eyes on her, and there was no way to escape the sound of the intercom. So, she just sat on the couch with folded arms, staring intensely.

She thought she was finally starting to understand. He was just messing with her. His voice was dry and monotone, but there was something sadistic in it as well. Was he trying to make her angry? If he wanted to start openly dosing her with whatever that drug was, then it would make sense. If he could make her angry enough to tear the room apart again, then that would give him more leverage with the other members of the staff who supposedly didn't want to start drugging her. That also explained the collars he tried to force on her before, he knew that would cause her to lose her temper, and she foolishly fell right into it before. But not again.

He was subtle, and he must have thought he was quite clever, but Homura knew he was underestimating her. She wasn't going to play into his trap. It was difficult, because she was angry with her situation, she had felt this way for a long time now, and she admittedly wasn't the best at controlling her emotions. She had to keep calm, though. Just buy some time, and have faith that her friends would be able to help her get out of here.

* * *

"Please, Leiko, wait up!" Madoka called after her, as the snowy haired girl stomped down the street with her head low and her hands buried deep in the pockets of her black hoodie.

"Stop following me!" Leiko said, not looking back for even a moment.

Madoka caught up to her and grabbed onto her hand, forcing her to a stop "Kyoko's just upset! She's not good at controlling her emotions, and I'm sure she didn't mean any of it! So please come back, I'm sure we can work things out."

"Work what things out? I just told you, I'm done. This whole thing is getting way too risky. I don't even know Homura, do you really expect me to continue risking my neck for her?"

Madoka's eyes slunk down, despair was written all over her face "I-it's not just about that…"

"Whatever, I'm not stupid." The hurt expression that came over Madoka's face as she looked back up at her managed to make Leiko feel at least a little bit guilty, and her voice soften "Maybe it's different with you, but the rest of them only want me because I'm useful to them. What point is there to staying if-"

"That's not true!" Madoka shouted at her.

"Think whatever you want. It's better this way… I mean… trusting me…" Leiko's eyes shifted away "You're just going to end up getting hurt."

Madoka stared back at her, shocked, but Leiko refused to meet her eyes "Why would you say that? Leiko, you're wrong!"

They were standing outside a department store with an automatic glass door. Leiko pulled her hand away and said "I'm sorry." Then quickly went inside. As she passed through, strings of rainbow colored electricity shot forth from her fingertips and into the doors power box. Before Madoka had a chance to follow her in, the door slammed shut in her face.

"Leiko!" Madoka screamed. She tried pulling the door open manually, but it was locked "LEIKO!" She screamed again, now banging on the glass, but all she could do is watch as Leiko disappeared into the back of the store.

Madoka quickly pulled out her phone and dialed Leiko's number, then started running down the street. Usually there were alleyways behind these kinds of stores. Maybe Leiko was planning to leave through the back exit, so Madoka thought she still had a chance to catch her. She just had to find an opening. The phone rang and rang, but eventually just picked up the answering machine _"Leiko Amaya, leave it. ~Beeeeeep"_

Madoka found an opening between two other stores further down the street, and she dialed the number again. She made it to the back alley, and ran down it. looking at each of the steel doors, not sure which one belonged to the store Leiko had ducked into _"Leiko Amaya, leave it. ~Beeeeeep"_

Madoka opened the messenger on her phone and quickly punched in a message as she paced up and down the alleyway. _'Leiko, please pick up! Let's just talk!'_

Madoka found a wooden crate to sit on top of as she stared at the phone. Her hands were shaking, and her heart was fluttering in her chest. It was getting late in the day, and the sun had already disappeared over the horizon, though some of it's light still made it to the city streets, it was extra dark inside the alley. "Please answer…" Madoka whispered to herself.

Then, her phone rang, and she answered it right away without even looking to see who it was.

"Leiko!"

"Leiko? No, it's mom."

"Mama?"

"Soooo, were you planning on coming home tonight or what? You know, I really don't want to have to start… Madoka?" Despite herself, Madoka suddenly started crying "Madoka, are you ok?"

"No!" Madoka admitted, with a small cracked voice.

"What's going on? Where are you? Are you hurt?"

"N-no, I'm not hurt! I-I'm sorry I don't want to worry you… b-but…" Madoka's choked words ended in sobbing.

"Look, I'm getting in the car now, I'm coming to get you."

"N-no, mama it's alright! I-I just… my friends are fighting a-and…"

"No, I'm coming to get you. Stay on the phone, and tell me where you are. We can talk about it when I pick you up."

Madoka's head slunk down, unable to argue, and just continued to cry with her mother on the other side of the phone.

* * *

Subject One became unresponsive to him for the rest of the night. Dr. Endou watched her through the screen for a while. She was up to something, he could just tell, and he had a strong feeling it had something to do with the psychologist. He didn't have any proof, it was simply a _feeling_ he had, and he couldn't make any moves based off of a feeling. It didn't really matter though, he had all the cards. Whatever secrets Subject One had would be revealed in time.

Once he was able to use Galazadrin openly, the problems would be over, and they would finally be able to make some progress in their research. They actually had learned very little about Homura in the three weeks that they have had her. What little they did know about her came before she was even taken to the lab. She had been careful not to show them anything they didn't already know. She was smart. She was only a fifteen year old girl, but she was not to be underestimated.

The ice tea was indeed drugged. The supplements, however, were exactly what he told her they were. He might be able to use her refusal to take the supplements as part of his argument why Galazadrin is needed. He would state some concerns about her causing harm to herself, due to her spiteful unwillingness to cooperate with his team. Galazadrin would negate all her aggression, so that there would be no more fear of her harming herself or anyone else, and not only that, it would make her more cooperative with the tests. It could even be used as a truth serum, which is the part Endou was most anxious to see put to use. He would finally be able to end his suspicions about Dr. Sakura, as well as get some honest answers about how much Homura knows about her own power.

For tonight, though, it was getting late. Endou would send Subject One to bed, put the night team to watching her, and then go back home himself. He pushed down on the intercom and spoke "Homura, time for bed. I noticed you haven't eaten anything since getting sick earlier. If you are hungry, now is your chance. Otherwise, brush your teeth and go to your bedroom." Homura looked up at the camera scornfully. At that, Endou's stoney face raised into something that might be a smile and he added "You have fifteen minutes." Then he pushed a button which forced her TV to turn off.

Subject one slammed the remote she had been holding down on the coffee table then stomped into the bathroom. She was indeed very intelligent for her age,and should she should not be underestimated. However, she was still easy to manipulate. He was satisfied that the way in which he asked her to go to bed had it's desired effect.

He looked over the report from the technicians while he waited for her to finish. The highspeed cameras technically didn't pick anything up, but the lead technician wrote that there was something of a distortion at the exact moment Homura teleported. It wasn't something that the naked eye could pick up on, even with the video slowed to one ten thousandths of it's speed. They did not yet have an explanation, but they wrote that it was worth additional testing.

Subject One came out of the bathroom dressed in sweatpants and a loose t-shirt. The bathroom indeed did not have any cameras in it, which made Endou nervous, but he supposed it couldn't be helped. For now, anyway. Perhaps in the future, he would make a case of needing cameras in that room as well, but he had bigger issues to worry about with getting regular doses of Galazadrin approved.

"Goodnight, Homura." He said into the intercom, and pushed a button to turn out her lights. He shut his computer terminal down, and sent out a message for the night security team to take over. Their role was simply to watch over her and report any suspicious activity. They were forbidden to talk or interact with Subject One, unless it was an emergency situation.

Endou walked down the long white familiar halls, the metal doors hissing and sliding open as he approached them, then sliding shut again behind him. He made it to elevator room, which had three armed guards stationed in it at all time. One of those guards escorted him onto the elevator and up to the main floor. Once at the top, he exited the elevator, his escort staying behind, and went into a room with two more guards.

From this point further, since he was a member of the staff, he didn't need an escort. He nodded a brief goodbye to the workers who he walked by every day, but never talked to. The employees on this level of the building were clueless about what was going on underground, only knowing that it was some kind of research department.

There were more guards patrolling around the outside of the building, though these only had standard issue handguns rather than the assault rifle wielding guards below ground.

Endou got into his car and drove home.

He lived just inside Mitakihara City, so his home was a short drive from the Anomalous Research Facility that exited on the outskirts of the city.

He stared at the dark highways, lights zipping past him as he drove. He was a man who lived only for his work. He would stay at the lab all day every day if he could, because he felt as if there was nothing waiting for him at home… but it wasn't always like that.

He parked in his driveway, and sluggishly put the key in the front door. He could remember a time when there was some joy in coming home after a long day at work. Those days were gone, though.

He turned a single light on in the dark house, and made a meal for himself out of leftovers. When he was finished with that, he would change for bed, and lay down next to a wife who made a point of being asleep before he arrived there. He wasn't sure if he was ever _really_ happy with her. If there ever was such a time, it only lasted a couple of years. The years that followed was nothing but a bitter and cold relationship. He once tried to get out of it, but it always seemed as though something was stopping him.

It was as vague a sense as his suspicions of Kay Sakura, but he knew it was there. When he filed the divorce papers they would always get lost in the system. Once, his lawyer had even gotten into a rather serious car accident. Other times, it was a feeling from either himself or his wife that would stop the proceedings. But ultimately, their marriage remained intact.

He finished his cold meal, and continued to his room. He stood outside his bedroom door, and he could hear his wife's breathing. His routine would now be to go inside and go to sleep himself, but tonight, for some reason, he did something that he hadn't done in a long time. He continued down the hall to his daughter's room.

He went inside, there was a full moon tonight and it sent enough light in through the window that he could clearly see all that was in his daughter's room. His wife had once tried to clean the room, and empty it of her possessions, but that ended in a rather violent and tear filled confrontation when Endou didn't allow her to do so.

He sat down on the empty bed, and ran his hand over the sheets.

Was she alive or dead? Did she run away willingly, or was she abducted? He would never know.

He laid his head down for a moment and whispered "Tsarina…"


	12. Chapter 12

_'Oh god! I'm going to die!'_ The white haired girl was kneeling on the ground, cradling a broken arm. With wide, terrified eyes, she stared up into the sky at the creatures flying around in circles above her.

They were similar to vultures, but distorted. Their beaks were open, showing gums lined with pointy teeth that seemed more appropriate in a shark mouths. And their eyes… oh god! Their eye's! They looked like eyes that belonged on a human's face, except they were sunken deep into the creature's skulls, and although they were high up in the air, Leiko could see them clearly, and they wouldn't stop staring at her.

"I can do this…" She whispered to herself as she continued to stare back at them through her cracked glasses. She released the broken arm she had been tending too and raised her good arm high in the high "I can do it!"

With one last desperate burst of power, a beam of light shot forth from her hand. Strings of static danced around the beam's surface as it pierced the sky and shot towards the circle of flying creatures that had been stalking her.

Instead of panning away from it, the creatures grouped together and dove right into the center of the blast, meeting it head on.

Leiko's eyes widened, and her lips curled into a hopeful smile as she continued to release her magic from the palm of her hand. "I hit them!" She could see their dark silhouettes inside the beam, blue static surrounded the outlines of their bodies, and although they were still falling towards her, they were at least caught in her attack and taking damage! "I've got them! I got them!" She repeated to herself hopefully.

Her body felt stressed as she forced as much power from her SoulGem as possible, and she mentally begged for those silhouettes to start ripping apart inside the beam of light. "Come on! DIE!" She screamed, digging deep into her soul and pushing even harder, causing the beam to widen and glow even brighter "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" She screamed over and over again, but the silhouettes remained intact, and she felt her power slipping.

With one last burst of power, her magic ran out, and the beam's intensity simmered out and retracted back to her until there were only small strings of static coming from the tips of her fingers.

This world she was in was dark, the sky an unnatural shade of purple, and a cartoonishly drawn crescent moon hung in the sky amongst the silhouettes of pointy church steeples that lined the horizon. The trees in this world had faces which grinned at her mischievously, and she could hear them laughing. There were hundreds of laughing voices inside her head as she stared up at the sky, panting.

She couldn't see them anymore.

She grinned, she did it! She killed them, they weren't there anymore! They…

She heard a swooping sound, and her field of vision suddenly swarmed with stars as something crashed into the side of her head and knocked her glasses off. She fell down on her good elbow. The sudden movement caused the elbow of her broken arm to send a stabbing pain up her spine which tightened her jaw. She lifted her head, and she was struck again. There was another swoosh, and another, and she was struck two more times.

She hadn't killed them afterall. Her eye's had just been adjusted to the light of her own magic and hadn't readjusted to the dark surroundings. Thus, the vulture-like familiars were now invisible to her. They flew around her, diving in for an attack just to fly away again and regroup. She was struck again and again, each blow came within mere seconds of the last, and each time it came from a different direction; the attacks were impossible to defend against.

She fell completely to the ground, screaming as she hid her head under her arm. Her magic was gone, she couldn't fight back and-

Her frightened screams turned into screams of agony as she felt claws bare down upon her back and ripped into her flesh.

"HELP ME!" She cried, now completely defenceless and alone in this strange dark world she had stumbled into. "SOMEBODY! PLEASE HELP!"

Then, the attacks stopped, and she could hear a sound that she thought sounded like fireworks. There was a series of small explosions being let off somewhere, and she could hear the vultures screeching in pain. She cautiously raised her head and looked up. There was a silhouette of some new creature standing amongst the thickets of grinning trees. There were muskets hanging in the air all around it which let off explosive shots one after another. Each shot brightened the immediate area around it, and let brief flashes of light reveal the creature that had spawned them.

It wasn't a familiar, or a witch. It was a GIRL! The flashes from the gun barrels revealed a girl with beautiful blond hair done into drill curls, wearing a musketeers outfit complete with a tight corset and a feathered hat.

Leiko cautiously peaked around herself, and saw the vultures that had been attacking her dropping like flies.

Once it was all over, and the guns had stopped firing, the girl approached Leiko who was still on the ground sheltering herself under her own arm "That was a close one." The girl said with a smile, as she kneeled down "Are you alright? You're new to this whole Magical Girl thing aren't you?" Leiko looked up through the tops of her eyes. Her face was covered in blood, her lips were trembling, and she nodded pitiably. The blond girl just smiled in return "Here, I'll heal what I can to hold you over, but I'll need to take you back to my friend Sayaka to deal with the more serious wounds. She's our best healer." The girl got to work with her SoulGem, and Leiko felt a warmth surrounding her body as her cuts began to heal.

" _Our_?" Leiko spoke cautiously "There's more of you?"

The girl smile and nodded "Yup, there's three of us who usually work together. There's a fourth one who helps us sometimes too, but she can be a bit aloof. Anyway, I'm Mami Tomoe, what's your name?"

"L-Leiko…" The white haired girl responded with a shaky voice "Leiko Amaya."

* * *

"It doesn't change anything." Said Kyoko's voice "The appointments already set up, we don't need her anymore."

"What if it's a trap?" Mami's voice asked "What if they figured everything out and are just trying to trick you into coming back so they can capture you as well? This doctor supposedly searched your name, that's a huge red flag, we can't just pretend-"

"They don't know jack!" Kyoko said back, rather aggressively "So what if they know my name? They don't understand magic, it's not like they are just automatically going to assume thirty-something year old Kay Sakura is actually a fourteen year old Magical Girl!"

"There's more problems than just that." Mami said, keeping a calm tone "Without Leiko, how will we warn the lab staff to evacuate once the witch is released?"

"Screw em'." There was a brief silence "Don't give me that look! Who do you care about more? Homura, or some random asshole scientists? They're the people who started this is the first place! Hell, maybe a few casualties are what they need, to prove they are in over their heads with all this."

"We can't do that!" Mami said, raising her voice "Who are we to make that call? Deciding to prioritize one life over another, if we do that we are just as bad as any of them. We are Magical Girls! We protect people!" Kyoko clicked her teeth, sounding like she wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. Mami continued "Sayaka, you agree with me on this, right?"

"Well… actually…" Sayaka trailed off.

"You can't be serious…" Mami said, slowly.

"I'm just saying. If this Galazadrin stuff is everything Leiko told us it was… and they use it as a truth serum. Look, Homura knows basically _everything_ about us! Not to mention if they learn too much about Magical Girls in general… well... who knows what that could lead to. Besides, like Kyoko said, they are the ones who started this."

"We are talking about people's lives here!"

"Yeah," Kyoko cut back in "We're also talking about the life of one of our friends. Besides, it doesn't matter anyway, because if we don't get her out of there she's eventually going to turn into… um… turn into a..." Kyoko trailed off.

"Turn into a _what_?" Mami pressed on, with a stern tone of voice.

"Turn into… like… I dunno… _something_... look, forget it. All I'm saying is we can't abandon her. If it makes you feel any better, I'll try to tell her to warn the scientists herself in one of my messages."

"Mami, I know how you feel." Sayaka said "But this is our last chance. I don't like it either. I especially don't like it because I'm worried about Kyoko, but if we don't do this now we are never going to have another opening."

Leiko could hear Mami's footsteps as she stomped away "If you two are really going to go through with this, just leave me out of it."

"Idiots." Leiko said to herself as she leaned back in her computer chair. There was a knock on her bedroom door and she quickly turned the volume down on her computer, silencing the voices of Kyoko and Sayaka as they continued their conversation together. "Yes?" She called out, with a somewhat annoyed tone of voice.

"Miss. Leiko," Came the kansai accented voice of their maid "Breakfast is ready."

"Thanks, but I'm not hungry." Leiko said back with her usual rough tone.

"Your father has asked for you to attend the breakfast table this morning, Miss. Leiko."

Leiko sighed as she adjusted her glasses "Fine…" She grudgingly agreed "I'll be there."

Once she heard the maids footsteps disappear down the hall, she turned the volume back up on her computer, and could hear Sayaka saying "...to you, I don't know what I'd do."

"Look, it's all good. Like I said, unless Homura just totally sold me out- _which she didn't_ -, they have no idea what's going on. I'll be fine."

"Just… be careful… and if anything seems off to you, get out of there right away, ok?"

"I'm telling you not to worry, I got this. Besides, like you said, if we don't get her out it's only a matter of time before they find out about the rest of us. It's not that big a deal for me, I'm use to living on the run, but for you it's different. You would have to run away from home… and you wouldn't be able to go to school anymore or anything. I can't let that happen to you… Sayaka?" There was a sniffing sound "Hey, come here. Look, it's going to be fine. This is the last time I have to go in there. It'll be quick, just in and out so I can drop off the GriefSeed."

Leiko lowered the volume back down and rubbed her temples. She thought back to the day she first met Mami, and cursed herself for using her real name. If only she had the foresight to introduce herself under an alias, none of this would be her problem anymore. She could just fry the computer she left at Mami's house, and be done with it.

Every connection she had with them could easily be erased, but 'Leiko Amaya' wasn't exactly the most common name in the world. Combine that with a description, and she wouldn't be that hard to track down. She supposed if it came down to it, she would have to do what Kyoko said, and just run away herself.

It wouldn't be too hard. With her skills she could go anywhere in the world she wanted to go, and be anyone who she wanted to be. Money wasn't a problem, there were already at least fifty credit cards out there she had 'borrowed' from in the past, but she still didn't want to go that route unless it was absolutely necessary.

She got up from the computer and went through the door on the other side of her room to enter her private bathroom and brush her teeth.

It's not like she would really be leaving anything behind if she did run away. She did have a family… her father, her sister, various random cousins and aunts and uncles… but it's not like she was close enough it would necessarily be _heartbreaking_ to abandon them. She didn't really have any friends, either. Really, she had no connections whatsoever, but, this life was familiar to her, and she'd rather not have to just toss it away and start over if it could be avoided.

Her bigger problem right now would be figuring out how to deal with witches and keeping her SoulGem pure. She only went at it solo once before, and proubably would have died if Mami hadn't shown up. There was a couple other times she joined the team inside a labyrinth, but she really wasn't much use. When the whole thing happened with Homura, they started their arrangement where she would just help infiltrate the lab in exchange for GriefSeeds.

Right now her SoulGem was in pretty decent shape, but it was starting to fog over a bit. She wished she had purified it before leaving yesterday. She supposed, her best course of action in the future would be to search for other Magical Girls to help her out. They wouldn't be too hard to find, she just had to follow Mami's methods of finding witches, and she was bound to run into another Magical Girl eventually. She didn't want to help fight the witches herself, but she did have unlimited access to money. Everything in the world had a price, and surely GriefSeeds were no different.

After she finished brushing her teeth, and spat into the sink, she looked at herself in the mirror. The ribbon at the end of her left braid was coming undone. It was a green ribbon which matched her eyes. Madoka had given it to her, saying _"No! Keep it!"_ with that typical annoyingly cheery smile she always had on her face _"I picked it out for you! Besides, I never wear green anyway, it doesn't look good on me. But it's perfect for you!"_

She started retying the ribbon. She wasn't use to having her hair like this, and she supposed she didn't hate it. Well, if she had more time she would undo the braids so she wouldn't have to listen to any annoying comments from her older sister about it. She didn't want to take too long getting to the breakfast table, either. Her father wasn't a very patient man, and although she didn't have much actual _respect_ for him, she still didn't want to deal with him browbeating her over something as stupid as being late to breakfast. Since he specifically asked for her to join them this morning, he probably already had some stupid annoying complaints on his agenda as it was.

Then, she heard a familiar drum track coming from her room, which led into a heavy electric guitar rift. She walked back into her room and picked up her cellphone. It was Madoka again. Leiko denied the call and flipped it closed, silencing the heavy metal track she had set as her ringtone.

She would have to write a letter to Madoka, she decided, to explain why she had to distance herself from her and her Magical Girl friends. She supposed Madoka had been nice to her, so she at least owed the girl an explanation. Once that was done, she would change her phone number and erase all connections she had with the group.

She would keep monitoring them through the computer in Mami's apartment, however. At least until she was sure they hadn't been caught and taken to the lab themselves. If it did happen, Leiko needed to know so she could proceed with her own escape plan, and leave the country.

* * *

"Madoka, are you going to eat or are you planning to just stare at it all day?" Junko asked, teasingly. She was trying to get a smile out of her daughter, who had been upset ever since getting picked up the night before and still hadn't shaken out of it.

"Sorry… I guess I'm just not very hungry this morning." Madoka said in her small voice.

Junko sighed as she buried her face in her coffee mug and looked across the table at her husband, almost as if to say 'well, I tried.'

He returned a dole frown, then looked back to Madoka and said "Madoka, you know you can talk to us about anything, right? Are you sure you're ok?"

Madoka just nodded, unable to look at either of her parents in the eyes. She slid her chair out from under herself as she stood and said "May I be excused?"

"Madoka." Junko said, just before Madoka made her exit "I want you to stay home today, alright?"

It was clear right away that Madoka did not like that idea, and she tried to argue "But, I had plans with my friends and…"

"No buts. Lately you've been dancing around all of our rules and just coming and going as you please. Besides, I'm not sure I like you being out so much with so little explanation of what you are actually doing."

"I told you… we just hang out and study…" Madoka's eyes shifted away guiltily; she never was a very good liar. Junko didn't even feel it was necessary to point out she didn't study half this hard when school was actually in session, so the idea that she had been spending every waking moment of her summer break hitting the books was a pretty transparent lie to begin with.

"It's not a punishment or anything." Junko said "I just want you to stay home today."

Madoka seemed like she wanted to continue arguing, but she didn't know what words to use and instead just ended up stomping out of the room with a loud sigh.

Junko rubbed her temple and said "I really don't know what's going on with that girl anymore. She use to be so easy to understand."

Tomohisa just shrugged with a frown "Well, she is a teenager now, I think it's normal for her to be a bit moody. She has been rather secretive lately though."

"She was like this for a while before introducing us to Homura, but I wonder what it could all be about now? And there's the fact that Homura practically disappeared overnight." Junko sighed "It makes me worry."

Tomohisa nodded his agreement as he took a sip from his own cup of coffee "Tell you what, I'll get her to help me out in the garden today and see if I can get anything out of her then. For now, aren't you going to be late for work?"

Junko suddenly jumped up as if she was hit by something when she checked the time "Oh, crap! You're right!" Then she started guzzling her coffee and stuffed the last of her toast into her mouth.

Tomohisa laughed to himself, thinking how alike she and her daughter tended to be sometimes. Then, he could hear crying from Tatsuya's room. "Ah, sounds like someone finally decided to wake up, I'd better go him." He gave Junko a kiss and said goodbye before they parted ways for the day.

Madoka had stomped off to her room, where she tried Leiko's number one more time, once again just getting her voicemail. Madoka sighed sadly, and then typed out a text message for Sayaka _'Hey, I'm grounded so I won't make it over today… How are things going over there?'_

It only took a minute for Sayaka to respond _'Oh, bummer. Well, things seemed to have calmed down. I'm out shopping for Kyoko right now, and she's busy studying with Mami. We're still going through with the plan.'_

 _'Is that a good idea?'_

It took a lot longer for Sayaka to respond this time, but after a few minutes of pacing around a new message dinged in on Madoka's phone ' _Well, the appointments already been set up, all Kyoko needs to do is go in there and hand the GriefSeed off to her. Mami wanted us to bail on the plan at first, but it seemed like Kyoko talked her back into it… not that I think anything could stop Kyoko at this point anyway. Mami tried to contact Leiko, but she won't answer her phone.'_

 _'Yeah she won't answer for me either. Maybe you could get Kyoko to apologize to her?'_

 _'Yeah, good luck with that! Well, if Leiko just wants to cut us off there's not much we can do about it. We still have access to Kay Sakura's email, and Leiko assured us that it can't be traced back to us… Something about encryptions or something, I don't really know, but I guess we don't really need her anymore anyway.'_

Madoka stared at her phone for a while, with her fingers resting on the tiny keyboard. This thing they had themselves caught up in felt so surreal. She was so afraid for Homura, but she didn't want to see anything bad happen to Kyoko either. Eventually, without thinking about it, her fingers started moving _'Sayaka, I'm scared.'_

There was at least a two minute delay before the next message came through _'I know, me too. I'll keep you updated.'_

* * *

Kaiji left his house early that morning, before even eating breakfast. He made the excuse that it was something work related that had come up, which was partially true since Homura Akemi _was_ his work, and this Kyoko Sakura had some connection to her.

He didn't know how Kay tied in, if at all. Kaiji was at least fairly certain that Homura must have met this Kyoko girl before. Perhaps the similarities of Dr. Sakura and Kyoko's names are what caused Homura to slip and say her name… although, even that didn't seem quite right… but, that's just how things have been for him lately. He had plenty of theories, but none of them seemed _quite_ right. Hopefully, there was something in Kazamino waiting for him that would help clear things up.

He was lucky that he arrived at the bus station just as the bus was arriving, so he didn't have to wait long before getting on. The ride itself was also fairly short, as it was a sunday morning and there was very little traffic traveling between the two neighboring cities. Kazamino didn't really compare to Mitakihara in terms of size, Mitakihara being the biggest city in the region, but he was going to the more rural area on the outside of Kazamino anyway. That's where the Sakura church was located, as well as the residence of the family who once owned it.

There was a light rainfall, more like mist. The sun was covered by light gray clouds that seemed to fill the entire sky, and the rain had dampened the entire town, giving everything from the roadways to the the green of the trees a dark tint.

From where the bus let him off, it was a short walk to the church, which he decided would be his first stop. The sidewalks were completely deserted, and it was only on occasion that a car would pass by on the roadway. For the most part the traffic lights would turn from red to green without actually having any traffic to direct.

He looked through the windows of the small shops that lined the road as he passed by. A lot of them were closed, which wasn't too peculiar for a sunday, but he also noticed a good number were completely empty and had out of business signs posted on their front doors.

When he saw a diner that was open, he decided to drop in for a quick breakfast. He also thought it might be a chance to pick some of the local's brains for information.

Inside was almost as deserted as the rest of the town seemed. There were a few customers, but there were far more empty seats than full ones. Kaiji took a seat at the bar and a moment later the server, a large balding man wearing an apron, set a menu down in front of him "Coffee?" he asked.

"Sure that sounds good." Kaiji said as he opened the menu.

The server went to pour a cup, when he returned he set the full cup in front of Kaiji and asked "So, you from out of town?"

"Yes, I'm from Mitakihara."

"Thought so, we usually don't see too many new faces around this part if town… Not anymore anyway. So, what brings you here?"

"Business." Kaiji said simply, then added "Actually, more like an investigation."

"Investigation? Are you a cop or something?"

Kaiji laughed "No, not exactly, although I do have family in law enforcement." He took a sip of coffee "I'm actually going over to the Sakura church." The servers face shrunk down into a frown. There was a moment of silence, and Kaiji suddenly felt as though he had said something wrong. He asked "It's close to here isn't it?"

"Yes… just down the street, past the graveyard." His tone had suddenly gone rather dark. "You know, normally when we get an out of town visit to the Sakura church it causes nothing but problems." He looked at Kaiji very seriously for a moment, but then his face lifted back into a more friendly expression "I'm talking about vandals. Idiot kids with too much free times on their hands and an unhealthy interest in the occult. You obviously don't fit that profile, though." He laughed "So, what is it? You're a reporter aren't you? Well, if that's the case I'm just going to say don't waste your time. There's nothing to find there that hasn't already had more than it's fair share of coverage over the years… you know, after… _that_ , happened."

Kaiji shrugged "Nope, not a reporter either."

"Well what then?"

"It's actually a little more personal than that… do you know much about the family?"

At first it seemed the server wouldn't answer, but he eventually did "Yes, I've lived here my whole life, pretty much everyone around here knew the Sakura family. They actually use to come eat here at this diner quite often." He sighed "Anyway, you still haven't really explained yourself. What business is it to you?"

"Well, it's to my understanding the older daughter had gone missing. It's a bit difficult to explain the reason, but it's actually very important that I find her. That's why I'm here, I'm looking for a clue as to where she could have gone."

"She's been back a few times." The server said, and when he did Kaiji nearly jumped out of his seat.

"She has?"

"Well, as far as I know it's just a rumor. Some people around town claimed to have seen her. When she does show up, she doesn't stay long, and she never talks to anyone. She usually just goes to the graveyard, drops a few flowers by her family's graves, and then disappears again. That's the rumor anyway."

"I see… any idea where she's been staying these last few years? Any rumors on that?"

The waiter shook his head "Nothing like that, all I can say is there's some people around town who claimed to have seen her. After that night at the church, she ran from police custody and has been off the radar ever since." He shook his head "It was such a tragedy, I don't think this town ever fully recovered from it. Probably never will. Something like that; it's like a black cloud that just won't go away. I imagine no matter how much time passes, there are always going to be whispers about the Sakura Cult." He gestured around the diner. A few seats were taken, but for the most part it was completely empty "A few years ago, around this time of day, I wouldn't be able to be standing here talking to you like this. It would be too busy. Those days are over. A lot of people moved away after that night, most of them were his followers.

The church itself had been condemned ever since. It's a good sound structure, needs a few repairs, but you'd think someone might have some use for it. But nope, no one wants anything to do with it, and I don't blame them. There's evil surrounding that place, and I'm not normally a superstitious man myself, but I'm telling you what happened at that church wasn't natural."

An old man sitting further down the bar cleared his throat, then spoke with a raspy voice "I can't say where she might be now, but I can at least say the rumor about her visiting the graveyard is true." Kaiji took a look at him. There were a few scraggly white hairs on top of his otherwise completely bald head. His face was wrinkled, and his skin seemed loose. "I should know. I've seen her."

"You have?" Kaiji asked.

The old man nodded "I'm a caretaker at the funeral home. It's right outside the graveyard, I get a good view of the comings and goings every day. Besides, I once knew her family quite well. Her father and I knew each other through our professions. I have to ask though, why is it you are looking for Kyoko Sakura?"

Kaiji quickly thought of something, and when he did the lie slipped off his tongue perfectly "My fiancé actually happens to be Kyoko's aunt. Her name is Kay Sakura. She lived in Tokyo until moving to Mitakihara recently. She desperately wants to get in contact with her niece, and make sure that she is alright." The other purpose for this lie would be to find out if the name Kay Sakura was known. If he could learn that she was indeed related to Kyoko then he would finally have a connection between the two.

The old caretaker seemed to think about this for a moment before saying "I don't recall there ever being an aunt, and the name Kay sure isn't familiar…"

"Apparently she never had much contact with that side of her family in the past. Actually, I didn't even know she was related to the Sakura Church incident until quite recently… I think she wanted to keep it a secret from me, but…" Kaiji shrugged sadly "Anyway, it's been weighing on her mind lately, and I think if I can help her find her niece it would make things better. So please, if there's anything you know."

The caretaker seemed satisfied with Kaiji's story "I saw her a couple times down there by the graves, but she always managed to disappear again before I could even make it outside. Sorry, but that's all I know."

"You're sure it was her though?" Kaiji asked.

"Yes, there's no mistaking that crimson red hair, same color her mother and little sister had. She had it tied back in a ponytail, just like she always did, even when she was little."

Kaiji was going to take another sip of his coffee, but set the mug right back down when he heard that "Crimson red hair? And it's kept in a ponytail?" He asked. The old man raised an eyebrow at him, and nodded.

It could just be another coincidence, but that description of her hair sounded exactly like Kay Sakura's.

* * *

"Homura, we've noticed you have not yet eaten anything today." Came that monotone voice from over the intercom "Are you feeling well?"

 _'What do you think, asshole?'_ Homura thought, then she said "I feel just fine… I just haven't been very hungry yet today." She was sitting at her table, working on a drawing; trying to keep her mind occupied. She had already finished the outlines of the spider lily she was drawing and it was now time to color it. She looked amongst her box of colored pencils; it was a set of three hundred, which gave her complete freedom with colors.

She looked amongst the shades of red, picked one out, and tested it on a piece of scrap paper. It was too bright, she wanted a darker color. She returned the pencil and pulled out another one, and when she tested it on the scrap paper it was a beautifully dark shade of red. She looked at the word printed at the bottom of the pencil: Blood Red.

Her eye's lazily traced the lines of the lily as she held the pencil over it. A grin forced itself onto her face and she whispered _"Blood Lily."_ , which gave her that subtle urge to start laughing.

The drug must still be affecting her, she thought, as she touched the pen down and started coloring. That, and she actually was quite hungry, but afraid to eat any of the food that was waiting in the refrigerator for her. Therefore her hunger was also making her a bit delirious. On top of that, her SoulGem was in really bad shaped. She took a look at it when she went to the bathroom earlier this morning and saw that it was reaching a dangerous level of impurity. At least Kyoko would be coming for another visit today, hopefully she would bring a GreifSeed, and even more hopefully, maybe her friends had finally put together a halfway decent escape plan.

"Homura, you need to eat." Dr. Mono's voice said from over the intercom "Considering you got sick yesterday and lost most of your lunch, it's been twenty four hours since you had a decent meal. It's important for us that you keep your health up, so if you would, please go into the kitchen and make something for yourself."

"I'm not hungry…" She said in a slow, distracted tone of voice. She was more focused on her drawing. Her pencil scratch back and forth along the lily, slowly filling in the blood red color. She became fascinated as she stared at her work, and it had an odd feeling of distracting her from her other problems. She suddenly didn't notice her hunger as much, or how thirsty she was. The thirst was the worst of it, her throat had felt dry ever since waking up, and it was a torture to know there was an endless supply of water within her reach, but she was too suspicious to take a chance with it. As she focused on the red spider lily, however, and colored it in, these things seemed to bother her less and less.

"It's important for us that you keep your health up. If you are shown to not be responsible for yourself, we will have to take other measures to insure you are getting the proper nutrients."

Homura's hand tensed, and the scratching with her pencil became harder. She had been carefully shading the red, but the new lines came out darker and darker as she pressed down harder.

Her hand stopped when she heard a familiar hissing sound. She looked up at the walls and saw those small panels that lined the top corners had opened up and started pouring gas into the room. "What are you doing!" She screamed as she stood up; her chair slid out from under her and fell over. She quickly ran over to the camera, "Stop it! I've been cooperating havn't I? So STOP!"

"You haven't been cooperating, Homura. Yesterday you may have gone to the test rooms peacefully, but even so, you still haven't followed all of our instructions. This isn't about that anyway, we simply can't allow you to be a danger to yourself. If you won't eat, we will have to take other methods to ensure you get your… _nutrients…_ " He said the word nutrients with a sarcastic tone of voice. She knew what he meant, and he wanted her to know he knew she knew. She was quickly coming to realize that this was a sadistic man she was dealing with. It wasn't just for the sake of science or whatever the hell reason she was locked up down here, he actually enjoyed messing with her.

"Ok stop it! Stop! I'll eat, ok?" She pulled her shirt up over her mouth as the gas started to get more dense "I'll eat! So stop it! Please stop!" Suddenly, the hissing stopped, and the panels slid closed again. She still stared at the camera, her breathing was heavy and her heart was racing. Air vents on the ceiling kicked on, and the light fog of the gas started to lift from the room and lose its density.

The intercom buzzed on "Go and eat now." Homura lowered her shirt from over her mouth and continued to stare at the camera. Her eyes were wide and accusing. "If you don't, we will turn the gas back on, and if we do we will not be giving you another chance." Homura nodded slowly, then turned around to walk towards the kitchen. "Don't be angry, we are only doing this for your own good, Homura." Her fist tensed at those words, but she kept herself calm, and opened the refrigerator door.

She looked among all her choices. She knew some things were drugged, but perhaps not _everything_ was. She wasn't going to try the iced tea or the cold cuts again, since she knew for a fact at least one of the two had been altered. She needed to pick something else... Her eyes instantly went to the eggs. She picked one out of the carton and examined its smooth white surface. Surely an egg would be ok to eat, right? It's contents were in a natural casing, and it would be impossible to inject anything without either cracking the shell, or leaving some kind of a mark. After she finished looking it over and was satisfied that it looked like an ordinary egg, she put it back and took the entire carton over to the stove. Then she searched the cabinets for a frying pan.

"You need fluids, Homura. You haven't had anything to drink since yesterday either." Homura cracked an egg open and let it's contents spill out onto the frying pan with a hiss. When the intercom buzzed on again, there was a somewhat playful tone to Dr. Mono's voice "How about the ice tea?" Yeah, the tea was definitely drugged, and this asshole knew she knew.

She walked over to the fridge and took the pitcher out, then let it slip out of her hand and drop on the floor. The light brown liquid splashed out and created a large puddle in the middle of the kitchen. "Ah, damn it!" She cursed, then looked towards the nearest camera with narrow eyes and a smug curl to her lips "How _clumsy_ of me." She then grabbed some paper towels off the counter top and started cleaning it up. Dr. Mono didn't seem to have anything else to say for the moment.

The truth was she was even more thirsty than she was hungry, and the smell of the frying eggs was increasing her appetite. She decided she would eat as little as possible for now though, just enough to hold herself over and satisfy her enemy so they wouldn't try to gas her again.

As for something to drink, she wouldn't take water from the sink because she didn't know where it was coming from. If it was city water it would probably be fine, but if she had been drinking from her own personal supply these last few weeks it would be easy enough for them to contaminate it. She also couldn't drink from anything that had been opened already. Thus, her best option would be to go for something in a bottle.

She picked up a two leader of cola and checked it's seal. It hadn't been opened, but even so, something like this wasn't as secure as an egg shell. She would just have to try and drink very little of it and see if she noticed anything strange. If she could deam the cola was safe, then she would finally have a way to properly quench her thirst. If not, well, she didn't fully know the rules to this game she was being forced to play with them, but she did know getting gassed would cause her to lose that game. Therefore, if she was being threatened with the gas she had to give into those threats and do whatever they say… for now.

She just hoped that when Kyoko got here later today they would have a way to communicate some kind of escape plan to each other. Homura knew her time was running out, and she needed to get out of here NOW.

* * *

Nearly every one of the large stained glass windows on the outer walls of the church had boards over them. A few of the windows had been broken, and their colorful glass lay scattered about on the yard nearby. Kaiji didn't know what he honestly expected to find here, but he didn't have anything else to go off of.

He approached the door, not expecting to actually be able to get in that way, but it turned out it was going to be easier than he thought. All he did was lightly push on the door and it creaked open. He noted some splintered wood around the handle; it seemed someone else had broken in not too long ago.

He took a quick look around to make sure he wasn't being watched. A few houses were on the other side of the street that ran in front of the churches large unkempt yard. Most of the houses were also boarded up, but there were a couple that looked as though they might still be occupied. He didn't see anyone, though, so he entered the church.

Small colored rays of sunlight came in between the boards of a window on the far wall, in which there danced small particles of dust. The rows of seating also had thin layers of gray dust covering their brown finished wood.

Kaiji looked ahead to the altar at the front. There was a statue of the virgin son nailed to the cross, a melancholy expression upon his thorn crowned face, and the stained glass windows that hadn't been broken depicted his story. At his feet, there was charred wood from where there must have been a fire.

Kaiji's footsteps echoed as he walked towards the front. As he glanced around, he noticed a withered chewed up apple core that had been tossed into a corner.

So, this was the church of the mad prophet. The father of Kyoko Sakura. A name that had been whispered to him by some unknown force, but he was far past convincing himself that he had just imagined it. Still, he didn't know what it is he was suppose to find here. He wanted to find her, but he had no leads to go off of. Apparently she would come visit the graves of her family members occasionally, but today wasn't one of those days.

He had looked over the graveyard on the way to the church, and there was absolutely no one in sight. It would have been nice to see a crimson haired girl kneeling in front of a gravestone, and put an end to his search, but that didn't happen. So what now?

There was a door to the left of the alter. He walked through it, into a dark room. He tried the lightswitch, but of course there was no power in this building anymore. He pulled a flashlight out of his coat pocket and turned it on. As he ran it's beam around this dark room, his mouth dropped open. He saw writing on the wall in what he first took to be brown paint. It said: 'God forgive me for what I've done.'

It took him only a moment to realise the brown paint was actually dried blood. He ran the beam across the floor, and saw another brown stain right in the center of the room. It was darker, and fully absorbed into the wood. He felt a cold shiver go down his back and he quickly turned out of the room.

It was the same cold feeling he felt two days ago when stayed late at the lab. He hoped it was just his mind playing tricks on him this time, and he walked with quick echoing footsteps as he walked back down the center aisle towards the exit. The cold feeling hit him even harder, and it forced him to turn around. "Is someone there?" He called out, part of him still didn't want to acknowledge that cold shiver, and the mysterious voice along with the other strange things that had come along with it.

He heard a tapping sound from somewhere near the front of the altar, and he searched out what could have been making it. He realized that an old rotten apple core was rolling across the floor as if it had just been thrown. He swallowed, and walked towards it. It spun around for a few seconds before it came to a stop, and Kaiji was instantly reminded of the keyboard that had magically been thrown across a room last time he got this cold feeling. Part of him didn't want to admit that there was any reality to this phantom's existence, or whatever you could call it, but the more present part of himself gave up on denying it's existence.

He walked towards the apple core, and looked down at it, then realized there were more discarded apple cores on the other side of the alter. A few of them rolled, as if pushed by something, and he felt that cold chill go down his back. He walked over with slow steps, part of him wanted to turn and hightail it out of the church, but he knew he had been led here for a reason, and there might be something he was suppose to find.

A paper bag blew out from under the nearby seating as if it had been blown by some powerful gust of wind. It landed by Kaiji's feet, and Kaiji took a step back and just stared at it. It looked like an ordinary brown grocery bag. The cold chill crawled up his spine, and he heard the voice whisper into his ear, _'look'_.

He jumped back, and started to look around "Who's there?" He said, his voice echoing through the church. He swallowed, feeling a certain barrier in his own mind breaking down as he came to accept the voice he had been hearing wasn't just his imagination after all. That voice had led him to discovering Kyoko's Sakura's name, and it was the reason he was here in the first place. "What do you want?"

The paperbag lifted off the ground and floated towards him as if carried by a gust of wind. He snatched it out of the air and stared at it. It was crumpled up, so he started straightening it out, and when he was done he could see there was a logo printed on it: Espior Produce. Then the voice whispered in his ear once again. _'go'._

"Look… this is crazy." He said, talking partly to himself. Then he felt the chill tear through him more powerfully than it ever had before, it felt as though it reach all the way down to his bones, and he stumbled to the side as if something had hit him. The bag blew out of his hands and the voice shouted into his ear _'GO NOW!'._

Kaiji started backing away from the altar, looking around, still hoping for some rational explanation to what's been happening to him, but ultimately his steps got faster, and he ended up running out of the church.

Once outside, he was breathing heavily as he looked around. The cold chill he had been feeling was completely gone now, and it was a strange relief to find the clouds had parted overhead and he was being hit by direct sunlight. He pulled out his cellphone and typed the store's name into a search engine, it only took a moment to find it's location: It was all the way back in Mitakihara Town, just a few blocks away from the school which Homura attended.

He flipped the phone closed and returned it to his pocket. Then started making his way back to the bus stop.

* * *

Kyoko reached into the bag and pulled out another apple, there were already three discarded cores sitting atop the glass. As she crunched down into the unscathed surface of the fruit, she noticed Mami giving her a look from over the top of the psychology book she was holding in her hands. "Want one?" Kyoko asked as she chewed, spitting out tiny chunks of apple.

Mami sighed and said "Would you please concentrate on this?"

"What? I need to eat! How am I supposed to think straight if I'm all fatigued from hunger? Besides, it kind of feels like we are wasting time learning all this psychology mumbo jumbo. I haven't had one conversation about cerebellums or anything yet. Which by the way…" She snapped her fingers and with a quick flash of light she seemed to have grown a few inches taller and her face matured. She changed the tone of her voice, and factually stated "Is the section of the brain which coordinates and regulates muscle activity." She snapped her fingers again and another flash of light returned her to her normal self "See? I got it, so just chill out."

"Moreover…" Mami continued, eyeing the bag suspiciously "You didn't happen to _steal_ those did you?"

Kyoko suddenly flinched back and started waving her hands "No! They're paid for!"

"It was to my understanding you had been banned from that store. So how exactly did you get those? If I may ask."

"Sayaka bought them for me. Geeze, suspicious much?" Then she scratched her nose and under her breath she said "Well, I guess it's true I don't exactly have the best track record but still… I promised Sayaka I'd quit stealing so I don't steal anymore, ok?" Then Sayaka came out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel against her wet hair. "There, Sayaka can vouch for me."

"Hm? Yeah, I bought them." She said as she joined the two of them at the table. "I don't know why you're so specific about getting them from that specific store anyway. There are other stores that sell apples you know. Why don't you just get them from the supermarket? It's cheaper there anyway."

"Hey, let me explain something." Kyoko said, holding up her apple as if it were some rare artifact "Good produce is not something to be taken lightly! Supermarket produce gets sprayed with all kinds of pesticides and junk, and who knows how long it could have been sitting in storage! Espoir Produce gets all their stuff delivered fresh from local farmers, so you know you're always going to get the best quality!"

Sayaka sighed "If only she could direct that kind of passion towards something more practical."

"Anyway…" Kyoko said as she stood up and stretched "I guess I'd better get ready to go."

Mami seemed like there was a lot weighing on her mind, but she kept quiet.

"I'll come with you this time." Sayaka said "We can pick a rendezvous spot outside the lab to meet up, once…"

"No." Kyoko said "Just stay here with Mami."

"What? But you always go with someone."

"This time is different, I mean, on the off chance there are any problems, I would feel more comfortable if you guys were far away from that place. Since we don't have Leiko to keep tabs on things, I think it's better I go alone this time."

"Kyoko, you don't have to do this." Mami said, as Kyoko walked towards the bedroom.

"Just try and stop me." She said with a wink before closing the door.

"Is this a bad idea?" Sayaka quietly asked Mami.

Mami shrugged her shoulders "It's as you said, we aren't going to have another chance, so we don't have no choice. Besides, it's ultimately up to her, and if she wants to go we can't stop her."

A few minutes later Kyoko walked out of the bedroom, now fully in the appearance of Kay Sakura, complete with glasses and a white lab coat. "Alright," She put a thumb up and grinned, the action looked really strange coming from the conservative scientist she otherwise appeared to be "Wish me luck!"

* * *

 **Sorry this chapter ended up taking a while to release, there were two reasons for that. First, the holidays (ironically) took away from my writing time. Second, this chapter ended up being _extremely_ long at just over 9k words! (My longest chapter ever so far)**

 **I think chapter 13 shouldn't take as long to come out, but that partly depends on what the word count ends up being. This chapter was mostly set up, and I have a lot planned for next chapter. My goal will be to release it within 2 weeks from today, but we will see if I actually manage to pull it off or not. All I can say is right now Test Subject One has my full attention so it will be getting the most updates, and I think the next few chapters are going to be really exciting!**

 **-Atomyst**


	13. Chapter 13

**To make up for the delay last chapter, I managed to get this one out a couple days ahead of schedule, and it's a long one at that, 11k words!**

 **Plus I have another surprise, Axius27, who has been a big help with beta reading since chapter 9 has also been working on a spinoff to Test Subject One which he just recently completed. The spinoff is an idea he mentioned to me a while ago about an alternate escape plan, which I liked so much I was tempted to throw away my own plan for the future of this story and run with his idea. But, ultimately I didn't do that because I'm quite excited about what I already had planned as well. A few weeks later he mentioned that he had started working on his spinoff and I was quite excited about it.**

 **It's now complete and I must say he did a fantastic job on it. So, when you are done reading this chapter and waiting for the next one make sure to go check out Axius27's spin off entitled: "Test Subject One: Ransom"**

 **He managed to stay pretty true to the original characters of this story, but I'll mention that Tsarina (Dr. Endou's daughter) is very different in his story then she is in this one for reasons that will be pretty obvious (mainly because so far in my story she is just a name with a very brief backstory)**

 **Anyway, thank you all for reading and enjoy!**

* * *

As the labyrinth withered and disappeared, the four girls were all still in their battle stances. Sayaka and Kyoko at the front of the group with their weapons poised, Leiko and Mami behind them as they both typically used ranged attacks.

The GriefSeed clinked as it landed on the ground, impossibly balanced on its tiny metal spike. "That was a tough one." Mami said as she bent down to pick it up "But it looks like it all worked out in the end. Let's all purify our gems now." Kyoko scoffed and folded her arms, it's clear she had something to say. "Is everything alright, Kyoko?" Mami asked.

"Are you seriously suggesting we split a GriefSeed four ways?" Kyoko asked "What's the damn point? That's not going to do anything for any of us."

"Kyoko…" Sayaka said softly, feeling a bit uneasy.

"That is what we agreed on." Mami said sternly "Why do you have a problem with it now?"

Kyoko reached into her back pocket and produced a box of pocky "Look," She said, stuffing one in her mouth and tapping her foot impatiently "This witch hunting stuff is serious business, and we aint running a charity here."

"Charity?" Mami asked.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Kyoko said, looking past Mami and staring right at Leiko.

"If you have something to say… why don't you just come out and say it?" Leiko said dryly.

"I already said it didn't I?" Kyoko spat as she turned around "You were totally useless, and Mami almost seriously got hurt because of you!"

"I used just as much magic as you did during that fight!" Leiko shouted back.

"Yeah, for all the good it did. Half your attacks hit nothing but thin air." She clicked her teeth as she climbed up onto the building's ledge "Whatever, you three go ahead and purify, it's pointless splitting it four ways." Leiko just folded her arms, the light of the waning moon turned the left lense of her glasses into a white orb.

"Kyoko, hang on!" Sayaka said as she reached after her. Kyoko ignored her and jumped over the building top, disapearing before Sayaka made it over there to see where she landed. Sayaka just looked around at the city streets below for a moment, and realized Kyoko was in one of her moods and it would be pointless to try and talk to her for at least a couple hours.

"Whatever, if it's that much of a problem I'll pass too." Leiko said as she turned away "I wouldn't want to be a _burden_."

"Leiko, hold on, you don't have to do that." Mami said, "Kyoko is just like that sometimes, she doesn't mean it. Besides, you're still new so it's natural you might have a few shortcomings."

"No… she's right. Even when my attacks do land, they barely do any damage. I'm pretty much useless against witches, but that doesn't mean I will allow myself to be a charity case." And with that, she jumped down from the building as well.

Mami sighed and looked over to Sayaka with a smile "Oh well, we'll just have to give the two of them a bigger share next time."

"Actually… I'm going to see if I can find Kyoko. I have a feeling she may have gone to the arcade." Sayaka turned back and returned the smile "I didn't need to use much magic in that fight anyway, so you can keep it. See you tomorrow!" And with that, Sayaka followed suit and disappeared into the night.

Mami frowned as she looked at the unused GriefSeed in her hand, and decided to just save it. Their gems were all in pretty good shape thanks to defeating the Walpurgisnacht earlier that week, so she supposed it was ok to wait for now.

"Kyoko's right, you know." Said a familiar voice, Mami turned around just as the allusive fifth Magical Girl of Mitakihara revealed herself from the shadows.

"Homura, we've barely seen you at all since the battle against Walpurgisnacht. Where have you been?"

Homura shrugged "I've been busy."

"With Madoka?" Mami inquired, then just laughed when Homura responded by clearing her throat "You know, it wouldn't kill you to take some credit for your own good deeds. I was a little disappointed you didn't come celebrate with us after our victory."

"I didn't see much point. It's not as if our war had ended just because of that one victory…" She looked over the horizon and a gust of wind blew her silky black hair "The future is uncertain now, we all have to stay on our guards."

"Homura? Are you alright?" Mami asked "You're acting a bit dramatic, even more so than normal." Mami smiled a bit, trying to lighten the mood, but Homura ignored her statement.

She turned back to Mami and said "I don't know why you have invited a fourth member into your group, but I hope it is because you saw some kind of potential in her, and I hope it is not as Kyoko said and you are simply being charitable. No one will benefit from that."

Mami folded her arms, suddenly remembering why she and Homura didn't get along at first. Although, over the last couple months Homura had proven she usually had the best interests of the others in mind, even when it didn't seem like it. So, Mami had learned to cut her some slack. "We may not have completely gotten use to fighting as a team, but I'm sure it will all iron itself out in time. Keep in mind, both Sayaka and Leiko are relatively new to this whole Magical Girl thing, but they can only improve."

Homura nodded "Keep them safe, Mami." she said as her hand grabbed onto her gear shield "I'm counting on you." And in the blink of an eye, Homura disappeared.

* * *

As Leiko suspected, she was only invited to the breakfast table because her father wanted to bother her with some annoying complaints and questions about how her studies were going. Apparently one of her tutors who she had been ignoring contacted her father, which prompted this little interrogation.

"Mr. Suzuki says he's worried your concentration is slipping, Leiko." Her father said, holding a newspaper with one hand, and using the other hand to feed himself. Leiko just shrugged her shoulders in response without so much as lifting her eyes from her plate as she ate. Her older sister cautiously looked back and forth between the two of them, no doubt one idiotic thought or another was going through her head at the moment, but Leiko paid neither her or her father any mind as she continued to eat. Her sister, Mikoko, could be quite annoying most of the time, but at least when their father was present she tended to keep her mouth shut. "You did well on last semester's exams, but don't think that means you have room to start slipping now."

"I scored _perfectly_ on last semester's exams," Leiko corrected him "This semester will be the same, I assure you."

Her father looked up at her with a raised eyebrow for a moment, but she didn't return the look. He then looked back to his newspaper and said "If that's the case, then why is it Mr. Suzuki expressing concerns _this_ semester." Leiko just shrugged once again.

Finally, her sister decided to chime in "It's your boyfriend right?" She laughed "Don't make the mistake of getting too caught up with relationships. Especially at your age, it almost never lasts so it's not really worth it, you know? Trust me, been there done that. By the way, when are you going to bring him over? I've been dying too…"

"We broke up." Leiko said simply, cutting her sister off before she had to listen to her any longer. To cover for what she had actually been doing these last few weeks she had lied and said she was spending time with a boyfriend. Since she decided to abandon the group, she no longer needed a lie to cover for where she has been.

Her father cleared his throat, bringing the conversation back on topic "About your studies…" He said sternly enough, though his attention didn't falter from the newspaper for even a moment "I need an answer as to why I'm getting calls from your tutors…"

"Father." Leiko said, cutting him off as well "You are wasting your money on them. I've already surpassed them in every way, and even if I haven't, I don't really need them one way or another. I study much better on my own, I always have." Her sister rolled her eyes, and her father set down his newspaper.

"You have a gift, Leiko." Her father said, actually looking at his daughter this time "I don't want to see you waste it, and whether you need your tutors or not, you still need to learn to work with others in a professional situation. Your intelligence is useless if you can't work with your bosses and coworkers or present your ideas in a professional manner."

"Whatever." Leiko said, stabbing her fork into the last of her breakfast and stuffing it into her mouth "Can I go now?" She got up without waiting for her father's response then started walking away.

"I give you a lot of freedom, Leiko, but If you start slipping there are going to be some changes around here!" Her father called after her "Do you understand?"

"Yes, father." She said as she left the dining room.

She retreated back to her bedroom and went right for her computer. She loaded up the program that allowed her to listen in on Mami's apartment, then turned the volume up. She didn't hear any talking, but could barely make out the sound of Mami humming, and she could also hear a clinking sound. Perhaps she was in the kitchen? She was about to open her GPS hack to check everyone's locations when she heard a knock on her door, and she quickly closed out of the program. "What?" She called, then the door opened and her sister came in.

"Soooo, hows my genius little sister doing?" She asked as she came in and plopped her back down on Leiko's bed.

Leiko turned around in her chair and adjusted her glasses "I didn't say you could come in."

Mikoko scoffed "Geeze, why are you always like that?" She stretched her arms out as she sat up on the side of the bed, then got up and started walking around the room and looking at things. Leiko just stared at her with a blank expression. "You know, we should really start hanging out once in awhile. Oh, your hair looks great by the way, who did it?"

Leiko played with the idea of saying she got it done at a shop, but she knew her sister would never believe she of all people decided to go to a beauty salon on a whim "A friend."

"A friend?" Mikoko with a grin "So, turns out you are a normal human being after all, I use to worry."

Leiko frowned "I guess." and she turned back to her computer and tried to think of something to make herself busy with. She couldn't do anything hacking related while her sister was in the room, so she pulled up an old thesis from a class over a year ago she had written and started looking over it. "So did you want something?"

"Not really." Mikoko said, looking over Leiko's bookshelf "You've just been really distant lately, even more so than normal, I'm just trying to connect with my little sister is all."

"Whatever." Leiko said, dryly.

"So, what do you do when you're out with your friends? Do you go to the mall or something?"

"Not really."

"Well then what?"

"Actually, I'm trying to help someone escape from a secret government research facility that she was kidnapped and taken to because she has magical powers. I'm the hacker in the group."

Mikoko looked away from the bookshelf and stared at Leiko with a blank expression "God, you're so weird. What's that from an anime or something?" Then she walked over to Leiko and put an arm over her shoulder which warranted Leiko frowning deeply in an annoyed expression "I have an idea, how about you stop doing whatever it is you are pretending to do on this computer and go to the mall with ME." She laughed "You're old enough now it won't feel weird taking you places like that."

"I'll pass…"

"Come on, seriously we never hang out."

Leiko suddenly shook away from her from her sister and knocked her arm away as she stood "I said, I'll pass." then she started storming out of the room.

"Hey! What's your problem? I'm trying to be nice to you!"

Standing in the doorway, Leiko turned her head slightly so she could look at Mikoko through the corner of her eye " _You're_ my problem." Mikoko just stood there with a stunned expression as Leiko disappeared down the hall.

 _'Yeah, you're my problem. Because you're a needy bitch who is jealous because daddy doesn't pay her enough attention. And because last time we 'hung out' you ended up ruining my life.'_ She couldn't explain that to Mikoko though, because thanks to a certain wish, not Mikoko nor anyone else in the world would have any recollection of that idiotic prank anymore.

"Whatever! Weirdo!" Mikoko hollard after her, but Leiko paid her no mind.

Leiko decided she would go out for the day, she wasn't sure where she would go yet, but with Mikoko around she wouldn't be able to get anything done anyway. She had her cellphone modified with her GPS hack so that was at least something.

She had pinged Kaiji somewhere in Kazamino city earlier that day, which she didn't worry too much about. As far as she knew, there would be nothing for him to find there other than maybe verifying Kyoko's name which is information he already had. She walked out her front door and saw that Kaiji was now back in Mitakihara town. She then checked up on Mami and Sayaka and saw that they were both in Mami's apartment, Madoka was at her own house. She couldn't track Kyoko, however, because Kyoko never carried a cell phone. She was likely on her way to the lab right about now, though.

Leiko didn't trust her cell phone's security enough to intercept emails with it. With her magic, it could be done, but it's a risk she didn't want to take. She would have to go find a public computer with no cameras around it if she wanted to do something like that.

As she left the front door of her house, she started searching for a nearby cab that could pick her up, which she was planning to pay for with stolen funds and under a false name.

* * *

Sayaka couldn't stand pacing around Mami's apartment anymore and just waiting. Since Leiko had bailed on them, they had no way of tracking Kyoko's progress like they normally could. They also wouldn't be able to see any emails from amongst the lab staffs, and would be totally in the dark if Kyoko had been found out and captured.

Sayaka reached into Kyoko's bag of apples and pulled one out, noting that there were only a few left. _I just bought those for her today,_ Sayaka thought, frowning slightly as she used her sleeve to polish the one she was holding. She decided she needed an excuse to go stretch her legs, rather than just sitting around anxiously, so she looked over to Mami and said "I'm going to make a run to the store, do you need anything?"

"I think I'm running low on sugar." Mami said, she was sitting at her coffee table, drinking a cup of tea while Sayaka had been pacing around "If you wouldn't mind picking some up for me."

"Sure, no problem." Sayaka said with a smile, passively thinking she knew who's fault it was Mami was out of sugar. "Well, I'll be back soon."

She left Mami's apartment and ate the apple as she walked down the street. Apples were cheaper at the supermarket, but Kyoko was really particular about that one specific store for some reason. Sayaka once pointed out how foolish it was for her to have gotten caught stealing from, and then banned from, a store she liked so much. Sayaka honestly didn't see what the difference was, an apple was an apple to her, but she supposed Kyoko's passion for food was oddly one of the things she liked about her.

She finished the apple as she was approaching the store, and tossed its core into a garbage can just outside the door. There was a man approaching the store just as she was and she held the door open for him. "Thank you, miss." He said as he entered.

"You're welcome." She said with a smile and followed him in. He was tall and looked to be in his early thirties. He had shaggy brown hair, and wore glasses and a tan trenchcoat which road down to just below his knees. Sayaka vaguely thought he looked like he could be a scientist or a college professor or something.

She went right to the produce section and unfolded one of the paper bags they had stacked nearby, then started selecting apples from the nearly endless pile that was before her. The scientist looking guy went right to the front counter and started talking to the store clerk.

"Excuse me, could I have a moment of your time?" He asked.

"Sure, what is it?" The clerk asked as he folded the magazine he had been reading.

"This might sound strange, but I'm looking for my niece. She ran away from home a while ago and I have reason to believe she might have come here."

"Hm, you got a picture or something?" The clerk asked.

"Unfortunately no." The man said "But I can describe her, she is a bit unusual so you may have noticed her. She's fourteen years old, and she has long crimson red hair which she always has tied back into a ponytail."

Sayaka hummed as she selected apples and placed them in her bag, but when she heard that, she gasped. Her grip on the bag tightened, causing it to loose its form and spill a few apples out, which dropped to the floor and rolled over to the scientist looking guy.

"Hey! you have to buy those now!" The clerk said, pointing over to her and momentarily getting distracted from his conversation.

"O-oh! Sure, no problem! Sorry about that!" Sayaka said, laughing awkwardly as she went to retrieve them. She bent over and picked up two of them, one had rolled right under the scientist's feet and he kneeled down to grab it and hand it to her.

They made direct eye contact and he smiled as he passed it off to her "Here you go." he said.

Sayaka's face was flushed and she tried to return the smile, but it just came off awkwardly. "T-thank you!" she said as she took the apple from him, then quickly turned away and went back to selecting fruit.

* * *

Kaiji rubbed his chin for a moment after the blue haired girl turned away from him, thinking that she seemed kind of strange. He pondered this as he watched her go back to perusing the shelves, then the clerk said "So your niece has a red pony tail? You might be in luck, I actually think I have seen someone like that in here." Kaiji instantly forgot about the odd blue haired girl and turned back to the clerk.

"You have?" He asked.

"Yeah, turns out we actually caught her stealing from us a few weeks back. It wasn't the first time either, we had just finally managed to catch her." He pointed up to a camera that was stationed on the wall behind his counter "After installing that, anyway."

Kaiji's heart jumped, he couldn't believe the break he had just caught! "So… you've got footage of her coming into this store?"

The clerk nodded and folded his arms "Look, I'm not real interested in filing a police report, they never make any progress with this kind of stuff anyway. If it was your niece, though, she has stolen at least five thousand yen worth of merchandise before we managed to catch her. On top of that, she knocked over one of our shelves and made a run for it when we DID catch her."

Kaiji nodded apologetically "I'm so sorry about that…" He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet then looked through it "Here, I'll pay for the merchandise and the damages, do you think ten thousand would cover it?"

The clerk smiled and nodded his head agreeably "Sure, that'll cover it."

"One condition though." Kaiji said "If you have footage of her coming into the store, or even committing the crime, I'd like to see that first. Just to make sure it is indeed my niece we are talking about."

The clerked scratched the side of his head "Yeah, I think we saved the tape… it's somewhere in the back." He sighed and looked over the store, the blue haired girl was the only other customer in at the moment and she was still meticulously perusing the shelves. The clerk stuck his head into the back room "Hey Yui! Come cover the front, I need to do something real quick."

"Sure!" A female voice called back.

"Alright, come with me." The clerk said to Kaiji as he led him into the back room "I got the tape back here somewhere, but it might take me a few minutes to find it."

As Kaiji followed him into the back room he glanced back at the blue haired girl. She had been staring at him, but her head shot right back down when they made eye contact. _Strange_ , he thought.

* * *

"Alright, showtime." Kyoko said to herself, as she adjusted her glasses and checked that the GriefSeed was still securely stuffed in her coat pocket. She picked up her 'Dr. Sakura hand bag', paid the cab fare and then stepped out. She then walked through the parking lot to the front of the building.

It looked ordinary enough from the outside, just a white building with glass windows and a parking lot full of cars. The only thing slightly abnormal is that there were a few guards patrolling around its perimeter. Even inside the building wouldn't hint to what was actually going on in there. It wasn't until going down the elevator, to the secret part of the facility, that this place would begin to seem more sinister.

She made eye contact with one of the guards she passed by, and tried to read his expression; looking for any hint that she might be walking into a trap. The guard gave her a perfectly normal smile and a wave, and she gave a friendly smile in return. If this was a trap, that guard likely wasn't any part of it anyway, he was just normal security after all. If they had uncovered her identity and were trying to lure her in, there likely would be no sign of it until she was underground. The trick was, she had to figure that out before stepping past one of the metal doors, because once she made it that far, it would be too late to bail.

She didn't know how they possibly would have figured it out, unless Homura really did sell her out, but she thought there was no way that could have happened. Therefore, she wasn't too worried. Still, the fact that they had somehow uncovered the name 'Kyoko Sakura' was a bit disturbing, and she would be lying if she said it didn't make her feel just a little paranoid. She had to lie to Sayaka, however, and convince her that she wasn't worried. She didn't want to unnecessarily make Sayaka any more scared then Kyoko knew she already was.

She went through the process of checking with this guard and that guard, and giving her name here and there before eventually being led to the elevator which had two guards standing on either side of it. So far everyone had seemed normal enough, no unusual nervousness, and no one said anything strange.

"Dr. Sakura." One of them said as he gestured into the elevator to bide her forward, after she spent a moment too long just staring at them "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, just fine." She said with a smile, deciding that this guard was not hiding anything either "I was just lost in thought for a moment is all." She stepped into the elevator, and the guard followed her in. The door shut behind them.

"Can't blame you for that. Especially not around this place." The guard said with a laugh as the elevator started to whir and move downward "I've been here for over a year and I still have no idea what the heck's going on down there. Can't ask questions though, that's against protocol." He winked.

Kyoko just put on a closed lip smile and nodded.

The elevator made a hissing sound as it slowed to a stop and the door slid open. There were three more guards waiting on the other side of it, and Kyoko felt her heart skip a beat when one of them stepped forward. It was just her paranoia getting the better of her. "Right this way, Dr. Sakura." The new guard said, he was the same guard who escorted her to Dr. Endou's office on her first visit here. The elevator guard stayed behind, and the door shut in front of him before the elevator started moving back to the top.

The guard led her to the first of the metal doors that she would have to go through, before she would make it to Homura. The two other guards filed in behind her, to her left and to her right, and suddenly she felt surrounded. She swallowed, feeling like things were moving too fast and she didn't have time to make a judgment on how safe this actually was. Once that door opened, and she stepped through it, there would be no turning back.

"So, you'll be my escort again?" Kyoko asked the guard who was leading her.

He turned to her with a friendly smile "Yes mam."

"Will I be going directly to Subject One's room today?"

"Dr. Endou asked that you go speak with him in his office first."

"Oh, why is that?"

"I don't know, but we'll be leading you to Subject One as soon as you are done."

"Very well." Kyoko said as the door the slid open. That short conversation was all she needed. Her skill was in enchantments, and enchanting is the skill of changing things. Or another way to put it: changing the truth of what something was. A lie is a non magical form of enchanting, and therefore she was very keen on picking up lies. She did not see any deceit in this guard during that short conversation, so, she followed him in. He led her down the hallway with one other guard sticking close behind her.

A few more metal doors, and a few white hallways later, Kyoko was standing at the familiar door of Dr. Endou's office.

The main escort tilted his head towards his walkie talkie and said "Dr. Endou, Sakura has arrived." Kyoko very faintly heard a voice come in through the guard's earpiece and then he opened the door for her "You can go in."

Kyoko walked into that familiar room, which was the only 'normal' looking area of this entire underground lab.

"Dr. Sakura, please take a seat." Endou said from behind his desk "How are you doing today?"

"Just fine, and yourself?"

"Fine." Endou stared at her with an expressionless face, like someone sitting at a poker table.

Kyoko eventually cleared her throat and said "You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes, I just had some concerns I wanted to address with you. First of all, considering Homura attacked you last time, I'm thinking it might be better for you to meet with her under more secure conditions today."

"More secure conditions meaning what?" Kyoko asked, crossing her legs and adjusting her glasses in the manner of a cultured professional.

"We can arrange for a meeting behind glass. That way she won't be able to reach you and bring any harm to you again."

"I don't think that will happen." Kyoko responded right away "Besides, I don't think I was ever in any real danger in the first place. She didn't want to hurt me, it was just a bluff she used as an escape method."

"You seem quite sure of that." Endou said with a hint of suspicion in his voice, it made Kyoko a bit worried, but she had to brush it off and assure herself that if anything was going to happen it would have happened already. For now, she had to make sure she got her usual face to face meeting with Homura so she could slip her the GriefSeed. Otherwise, the whole plan would be a bust.

"As I said before, I can't do my work properly if it's not a personal face to face meeting. You may not understand this, but Homura is in need of a friend and if I meet with those kinds of limitations it will entirely defeat the purpose of me being here. I would be just like..." She acted as though she wanted to be cautious, even though she actually had no problem with saying what she was about to say "She would view me as being no different than one of you."

"One of us?" Endou asked.

"I'm sure it's an understandable sentiment."

Endou seemed to accept this, and continued "I have other concerns." He said as he folded his hands together and leaned forward "Homura has been acting rather strange lately."

"Strange how?"

"She seems paranoid, she is convinced we have been trying to drug her, and has gone so far as to refuse eating. Mrs. Sakura, you have known Homura for a shorter time than me, and although I don't doubt your professional opinions there are two things I do know about Homura that you should understand as well. First, she is not entirely rational, and she has proven to be quite unpredictable. More than that, she is manipulative, she may act friendly with you but I suspect it might be a ploy to use you in some kind of an escape attempt. I think the incident the other day proves _this_ sentiment."

"If you are worried she will try and take me hostage again, I sincerely doubt that will be a problem. It didn't work last time, so why would she try it again and risk having our meetings discontinued? Furthermore, I think your impressions of Homura are all wrong. She is a fourteen year old girl who has been thrown into a bad situation. She is scared, and she wants to go home, it's only natural that she would try something rash like that." Kyoko took a deep breath, she felt her pulse quickening and reminded herself to control her anger. Kyoko Sakura would have plenty of choice words to say to this monster who has imprisoned her friend, and is now sitting there talking about it carelessly as if he were doing nothing wrong. She had to stay in character though, and speak as Kay Sakura. "You said she seems to be becoming paranoid, is there anything that happened in the last couple days that may have prompted that?" Kyoko already knew the answer, but of course she couldn't say anything about it.

"We simply tried to give her some vitamin supplements, which she refused to take. Ever since then, she seems convinced that we are trying to sneak drugs into her food. I'll wait for your professional opinion on this, but I suspect there's another reason for this."

"What?"

"I suspect it's all an act. Homura is only fourteen years old, but I'm sure we can both agree she is quite clever. She want's to escape, which is understandable, but we can not allow it. She has already tried achieving this through violent means, which have failed. I suspect that this latest issue with her is another ruse, I just haven't figured out exactly what she hopes to accomplish yet."

Kyoko had to once again remind herself to keep cool. She knew he was lying, even without the insider information from Leiko. Enchantments were _her_ specialty, and she could see the lies written all over his face. She simply said "I'll see if I can get to the bottom of whatever this is. Paranoia is not totally unexpected in her situation, however. From my first meeting with her she has shown obvious signs of PTSD, it's possible that her not eating is simply a symptom of that. It would also explain her general disinterest in the things around her, as well as perceiving something like vitamins as a threat. On the bright side, she seems to have self therapised herself through her artwork on some level. I'll continue using this as a method of reaching her and making a connection." She threw that last part in to lessen any suspicion about her and Homura drawing pictures back and forth to each other.

Kyoko cleared her throat "Anyway, can I go see her now?"

"You are still adamant about a face to face meeting?" Endou asked "I would once again like to highly advise against it." He leaned forward "Whatever you may think, keep this in mind: Homura IS dangerous."

 _'Damn right she is.'_ Kyoko thought _'You have no idea how lucky you are that there are at least three metal doors between you and her.'_

Instead, she said "I told you I understand the dangers. And as I explained, if I don't meet with her face to face then there is absolutely no point of me being here." Then she smiled "Just give me more time with her, and take my suggestions. I'm sure we can get her to a point where she is more comfortable and willing to work you. You have to treat her well, though. She is a prideful young girl, and she needs to feel as though she is being treated with a certain level of respect." Kyoko's eye's narrowed "Trying to put a collar on her, for example, is definitely-" _'going to piss her off'_ is what Kyoko almost said, but she bit her tongue and instead said " _definitely_ … going to cause her to lash out."

Endou's lips curled up in what Kyoko guessed was meant to be a smile, but this man was clearly incapable of something like that "I'm sure some mistakes have been made in the past, but we can try to make some adjustments."

Kyoko nodded simply "Well then, are we done here for now?"

"Yes." Endou said, then pushed a button on his computer "Homura, Dr. Sakura will be coming in shortly." Then he turned back to Kyoko and said "The guards will escort you to her room."

* * *

"Alright, this should be the one." The clerk said and he retrieved a cassette tape from a box "Sorry that took so long."

"Not at all, I appreciate you doing this for me." Kaiji said. The back room was more like a small office, complete with a desk which was littered with paperwork and a small filing cabinet. There was a miniature TV with a tape port on it's face, set at the far end of the desk. Currently, it was tuned to a gameshow, in which there was a middle aged contestant who was cheering for himself after answering a question correctly. The clerk turned it to the side so that Kaiji would be able to see it, and he inserted the tape. The gameshow was instantly replaced by an image of the front of the store.

The clerk pressed fast forward "I think she came by sometime in the afternoon. Since the footage starts a little after we opened, it might take a while." Kaiji nodded and watched. "So, how long has she been missing anyway?"

"A little over a month." Kaiji answered passively.

"Well, if it's any solace, she looked clean and everything, not like she has been living on the streets or anything like that. So, she must have found a place to stay."

Kaiji nodded as he watched the sped up version of the day's events. Customers coming in and out in fast motion, the girl who was currently tending the front sweeping, and the clerk had apparently spent most of that day looking at a magazine from behind the counter.

Then, a blot of red walked into the store and the clerk hit the pause button. "Alright, there she is." He said. Kaiji leaned forward to get a better look. From this angle he couldn't see her face, but her hairstyle was indeed identical to Kay Sakura's. The only difference was the casual clothing compared to the professional clothing Kay normally wore, and the obvious fact that this was a fourteen year old girl and Kay was a grown woman. Kaiji didn't have an explanation for this, but he at least knew for sure he had finally found Kyoko Sakura.

Being the rational thinker that he was, he partly told himself that their similarities in appearance was a coincidence. Although, there was still that other side of himself that had abandoned rationally after the strangeness of the last few days, and the obvious fact that there was SOME connection between Kay Sakura and Kyoko Sakura. It meant something, he just didn't know what it could be yet.

"So, is that your niece or isn't it?" The clerk asked, after becoming impatient with how long Kaiji was taking.

"It could be, I'm not sure yet."

"You can't tell?" The clerk asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Please, continue the video."

"Well… ok then."

The video started again. Kyoko turned down the first aisle, without facing the camera. The store clerk set down his magazine and leaned over the counter, watching the girl suspiciously. Kyoko snatched something off one of the shelves and stuffed it in her hoodie pocket. She then went right for the bin of apples which the odd blue haired girl had been perusing.

The clerk slowly got up from his seat, and walked around the counter with careful footsteps, intending to sneak up on the girl who still had her back facing the camera. The clerk put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around with a half full bag of apples cradled in her arm. Unfortunately, the clerk was now standing between her and the camera so Kaiji still could not see her face.

"Right about here I'm asking if she was planning to pay for that candy bar I saw her stuff in her pocket." The clerk explained "She says 'Of course, I just knew my hands were going to be full so I put it in my pocket'. Then I explain to her that the other day when Yui was tending the store, she saw a girl with a red ponytail walk out with a bag of apples she didn't pay for. She says to me 'So what exactly are you accusing me of? That wasn't me! Hand's off!', or something like that, at which point I just tell her to come in the back with me so we can let the police sort things out. After that… well."

Kaiji watched as Kyoko then pushed past the store clerk with the apples still securely cradled in her arms. Her head was down as she pushed past him, and he started to chase after her. There was a circular shelf that Kyoko got her hand on and knocked over, blocking the clerks path. Once she made it to the front door, she turned around and said something to the clerk and Kaiji could finally see her face. His mouth dropped wide open.

The clerk paused the tape "Right there she says… well, I'm not going to repeat it, but that niece of yours has got quite a mouth on her. She must be handfull." The clerk raised an eyebrow at Kaiji's shocked expression, he seemed completely lost for words "Hey, you ok?"

Kaiji shook himself out of it "Yes… Yes, I'm fine. Just feeling disappointed in her is all." He then sighed and said "You're right, she really is a handful. She has had a rough life, though."

"My sympathies." The clerk said, although his tone didn't sound very sincere.

Kaiji stood up and pulled his wallet from his back pocket and retrieved a few bills "Here is the ten thousand for the trouble my niece has caused you, do you think I could also keep that video tape?"

The clerk scratched the side of his face "Well, I mean, like I said I'm not too interested in filing a police report, but if she does come back I would like some evidence to prove my story, just incase."

Kaiji picked up a pen that was on the desk and a scrap piece of paper "Can I write on this?"

"Sure."

"Ok then, how about if I give you my phone number? If she does show up again, or cause you any problems at all, you can let me know. Could I take the tape then?"

The clerk suddenly looked at him suspiciously, but Kaiji quickly explained himself "I want to bring it to the detective that has been trying to help me find her. So he has a recent photo to go by."

"Oh I see… well, sure then I guess it's alright." The clerk said as he removed the tape and handed it over to Kaiji.

"Again, thank you so much for everything." Kaiji said "If you do happen to see her, please don't hesitate to call me."

"Sure thing." The clerk said.

Kaiji let himself out of the store, and walked around to the parking lot at it's side. He got to his car and just leaned his back against it, his mind was suddenly spinning. He looked up at the sky, trying to make sense of what he had just seen.

Kay Sakura and Kyoko Sakura didn't just have similar haircuts, and they didn't just have similar names. Their faces were identical. Not just similar, but identical! Not like Kyoko could be Kay's niece or daughter, but more like he had just seen a video of Kay from fifteen years ago.

He wiped his brow, and then got into his car. If Homura had the ability to teleport, destroy a room in an instant, and see into the future, then he supposed anything was possible. He was now revisiting his initial theory about Kay Sakura, the one that he had brushed off because it just sounded way too crazy. He needed just a little more proof, though, and he thought he knew where to find it.

He pulled out his cellphone and found a local directory, then searched for the family name: 'Kaname'.

* * *

The door behind Kyoko hissed as it closed shut, leaving her two 'escorts' behind. For a moment, she was standing in a small space between two doors before the one in front of her slid open and revealed the familiar room her friend had been trapped in for the last three weeks.

Kyoko walked in and gave Homura a smile "Hello Homura, it's good to see you again." She spoke in the character of Dr. Sakura.

Homura was sitting, just staring down at the table with her long black hair creating a curtain over her face. Then, her head slowly moved up and she looked at Kyoko with a distant unrecognizable expression. She looked really bad, her face was pale, and her eyes were dark and heavy. She seemed out of focus. "Homura, are you ok?" Kyoko asked, rushing over to her.

"Kay…" Homura said with a soft voice, then her eyes diverted away to stare at the wall instead, as if she were deep in thought.

Kyoko stood beside her and put a hand on her shoulder "Hey, what's going on? You don't seem yourself. Here, tell me about it."

"You have to get me out of here… they…" Homura's eyes shot over to one of the cameras for a moment, then she looked back to Kyoko and lowered her voice "They're trying to drug me. They already did, but I had to… to…" Her eyes shifted around, trying to think of the right way to put it "I spat it back up."

Kyoko swallowed, thinking how to respond. She had to remain in character, Endou mentioned that Homura 'thought' they were drugging her, but it was only paranoia. Kyoko was more inclined to believe Homura's side of the story, but would Dr. Sakura have the same reaction? She pulled over a chair and sat down "What makes you think that?"

"I know!" Homura shouted, Kyoko could see it in her eyes, she definitely wasn't her normal self. "Everything became strange, more colorful, and funny. Whatever it is, they put it in my food… I haven't been eating much, as little as possible, and only things I don't think they could have altered." She shook her head "I don't know what to do." Her eyes became intense "They're messing with me! I think they are trying to make me look crazy. Why would they do that?"

Kyoko cleared her throat, trying her best to stay in character "Dr. Endou mentioned your fears to me. He assured me that they haven't done anything like that."

"Dr. Endou?" A smile touched the corner of Homura's lips, then she lowered her voice until it became deep and monotone "Does he talk like this." She said in a comedic fashion, then she started laughing. Kyoko's eye's widened, and her heart started pounding. There was no doubt about, something was REALLY wrong with Homura right now.

"Homura, look at me. Let me see your eyes." Kyoko said. Homura snapped out of her laughing fit and became very serious "Good, here, follow my finger." Kyoko asked, and started moving her finger back and forth in front of Homura's field of vision. She didn't actually know what she was doing, but she had the idea that this is something a doctor could do to determine if someone was under the influence.

"I tried the cola," Homura explained as her eyes glided back and forth, watching Kyoko's finger "I thought since it was in a bottle it would be ok, I only took a little bit though. I puked that up too, but a little still got in my system I think." Her eyes quickly shifted back to the camera.

"Homura, pay attention to me."

Homura obeyed the request, and looked back to Kyoko. She lowered her voice "I shouldn't let them know that." She spoke in almost a whisper "They get mad if I don't eat."

"Listen," Kyoko said softly, and took Homura's hand into her own "As soon as our appointment is done, I'm going to get to the bottom of this. They are not going to hurt you, I assure you that."

"You believe me, RIGHT KAY?" Homura leaned forward, and a knowing smile appeared on her face which looked past the facade of Kay Sakura, and shared a joke with Kyoko. Kyoko wasn't in much of a joking mood though; she was horrified.

"Of course I do." Kyoko said softly, narrowing her eyes enough to try and remind the delusional Homura that she had to stay in character. She lifted a hand and brushed a loose string of hair away from Homura's face "There's nothing I can do right this second, but I promise I'm going to help you. Ok? But for now, lets just continue our meeting like normal."

Homura smiled and put a hand over her heart "My heart is all full of blackness." She was asking for a GriefSeed, but she was failing to conceal the message as cleverly as she had in the past.

Kyoko just nodded once, as that was the best way she could think to answer in the affirmative. To Endou or anyone else who was watching, the nod would look like she just didn't know how to respond to such an odd statement, but the smile that hit Homura's lips showed that she got the message.

Kyoko was really worried about the plan now. First of all, she had no idea how this delusional out-of-sorts Homura would react when she started with her enchanted writing trick. She needed Homura to be her normal clever self to pull off the act, without it being obvious something was going on. More than that, if this is how Homura was, was she in any condition to deal with a witch once the GriefSeed had hatched? At least she knew Homura hadn't given away her identity, if this had been a trap they would have sprung it on her by now.

Kyoko noticed Homura's notebook on the other side of the table. It was open, and there was a drawing of a flower inside it. "Is that a new drawing?" Kyoko asked "Can I see it?"

Homura's hand instantly shot over to it, and her eyes widened almost fearfully. She shook her head as she slid the notebook back to herself and hid it under the table. Kyoko just looked at her curiously. "No." Homura said, as she returned the now closed notebook to the table top "You won't like that one." She looked at Kyoko with a dreadfully serious look in her eyes, her voice lowered back to a whisper as if she was telling some dirty secret, and all the while a smile cracked across her pale face "That's a scary picture."

Kyoko nodded, her own eyes widening as she saw the disturbed look in Homura's eyes, and the frightening way she was smiling. "Ok." She said as softly as she could "You don't have to show it to me if you don't want to." She swallowed and looked around the room "Hey, I have an idea. How about instead of that picture, you draw a new one for me right now? Does that sound like fun?" Kyoko got up without waiting for Homura's answer. "You keep your drawing supplies over here, right?" She asked as she opened the drawer she saw Homura get her pencils out of before "Maybe I can draw something for you as well."

"You're a lousy artist, though." Homura said with a laugh.

"Oh? And how would you know _that_?" Kyoko said, looking back towards Homura and narrowing her eyes, trying to remind her that she was Kay Sakura, not Kyoko, and Homura should have no idea whether Kay could draw or not. Homura suddenly looked surprised and put a finger over her lip, obviously getting that she had slipped, but at the same time finding it amusing.

 _'God.'_ Kyoko thought _'If we get out of this, I swear I'll start coming back to church every sunday, and I'll never steal anything ever again!'_

Kyoko found the box of colored pencils and a fresh notebook, then brought them over to the table. "Alright, why don't I go ahead and draw something for you first?" She picked out a black pencil and started writing with it, all the while using her magic to enchant the page and make it seem that she was drawing something. None of the scientists would be able to pick up that something was going on, but Homura - even in her delusional state - was more in tune with magic and knew Kyoko was up to something. She watched curiously as Kyoko drew a picture of a cat's face.

Kyoko was never a good artist in the first place, but she made the fake enchanted drawing even worse than her normal skill level. The problem is Homura actually was a good artist, and the scientists might be aware of that, if Homura's skill dropped to being as equally bad as Kyoko's it might rouse suspicion.

"Ok, what do you think?" Kyoko said with a smile as she turned the page over to face Homura, and disenchanted it for Homura's eyes only.

She had written _'Please stay in character! I'm using enchantments - write back so we can talk - I'll hide it.'_

Homura stared at the page dumbfounded, then slowly looked back up at Kyoko. Kyoko's heart was racing as she mentally begged for Homura to not do anything stupid. Homura smiled "I could tell you would be a bad artist, Kay. Sciency people are never good at art."

Kyoko smiled, thanking the heavens above that it turned out Homura wasn't _completely_ out of it. "Oh, come on. I'm not that bad am I?"

Homura grinned "I'll show you how to draw a cat." She took the black pencil from Kyoko and started writing out her own message, which Kyoko started enchanting as soon as the pencil touched down. She tried her best to make this enchantment look nicer, it still likely wouldn't be on par with Homura's normal ability, but it would at least looked a lot better than the one she had drawn.

 _'I need a GriefSeed, really badly. I'm in trouble. NEED TO GET OUT!'_

"See?" Homura said as she finished, and passed the notebook back.

"Ok, ok, I already knew you were a good artist." Kyoko smiled "How about a dog?" And she started working on her next message.

* * *

"Mami you're not going to believe what just happened." Sayaka said into her cellphone. She was perched atop the store she was just in, dressed in her full Magical Girl attire. Her long white cape blowing in the wind as she watched the scientist get into his car.

"What? You sound stressed, is everything ok?"

"No! Everything's _not_ ok! I just came across a guy who was asking questions about Kyoko; I think he is one of them."

"What? He was asking _you_ questions?"

"No, no! In the store I was in, the one Kyoko got banned from. The one that has VIDEO of her stealing from them. I think they just showed that video to him."

"You're sure this guy is from the lab?"

"Yeah, I mean, pretty sure. He said he was looking for his niece, and I'm pretty damn sure Kyoko doesn't have an uncle!"

"Where is he now is he still in the store? And where are you?"

"He just left the store, he's getting into a car. I'm hiding out on a rooftop, I'm going to try my best to tail him, but he's in a car so I don't know how well it's going to go." She took a quick look around the city "It's the middle of the day, so maybe traffic will help me out a bit."

"Ok, do your best with that… I'll… well, I'll _try_ and get in contact with Leiko again, she seems pretty adamant about ignoring us right now though."

"Yeah, I'm not so sure about Leiko, to be honest with you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well… Nevermind, I shouldn't jump to conclusions. For now I'll just keep following this guy. I'll keep you updated."

"Ok, and Sayaka do I need to state the obvious? Don't let him see you, especially not while you are using magic, ok?"

"Come on, of course I know that."

"I'm just saying, that store has video of you as well now, and they would have no trouble tracking you down if you gave them a reason to. So be careful. Even if it means losing his trail, you can't get caught! Ok?"

"Ok, I understand. Ah, damn it, he's on the move, I gotta go now."

"Ok, good luck."

Sayaka flipped her phone closed just as he started pulling out of the parking lot, and then she was on the move.

Scaling rooftops was never her specialty. It was easy for Mami because she could use her ribbons to swing from rooftop to rooftop. Kyoko could use her spear as a vaulting pole, and Homura had a way of just seeming to teleport from one rooftop to another. Sayaka didn't have anything like that, so needed to rely on simply using magic enhanced jumps.

She jumped from rooftop to rooftop, until reaching a slightly larger building. She managed to catch herself on a windowsill and scale up the side of it using magic to enhance her arm strength. When she got to the top, she quickly ran to the edge and looked for the car she was following. Her eye's darted back and forth, briefly feeling panicked that she had lost it, but then spotted it and continued chasing after him.

After a few more blocks he had made a lot of progress on her, but she was lucky that he got stopped at a red light. She took this chance to get a lead on him, and continued further down the street he was on.

Mami had taught her that people don't usually look up, but she should always be quick about disappearing from sight after making a jump, just incase. She said that if she was spotted, most people would just convince themselves that they were simply seeing things, as long as she disappeared quickly enough. This scenario seemed to be true, because neither she nor any of the other girls have had problems with people spotting them while traveling in this manner.

So far it seemed he was heading to the suburban area, coincidentally where she and Madoka both lived. He wasn't going to the lab, because he would have made a turn a long time ago, so maybe he was going back to his own home? If she ended up finding out where this guy lived, then that would be a huge advantage. Her biggest fear, still, was that Kyoko was currently in the lab. If this guy had made some kind of definite connection between her and Dr. Kay Sakura, then it would mean huge problems.

 _'Damn it, Kyoko.'_ She thought as she ducked and rolled into a landing on a new rooftop _'You never should have gone! This is way too risky!'._ She didn't blame her for going, though. Sayaka had said so herself, this was their last chance to get Homura out so they had to take it.

She continued following the car. Once she got into the rhythm of jumping between rooftops it was easy. They kept getting closer and closer to her neighborhood, to the point Sayaka was wondering if he lived in the same neighborhood as her. She had never seen him around before, but it's not like she knew everyone who lived there so it was possible.

The next building she had to jump to was far lower than the one she was currently on. She use to get nervous in situations like this and slow down, but she had gotten more use to it, and right now she couldn't afford any delays. She leaped over the building's edge and her cape flapped in the wind as she made her descent. She still hadn't figured out how she would keep pace once they made it out of the actual city, but she supposed she would have to deal with that problem when she came to it.

She landed on the lower building and instantly felt a sharp pain shoot up her leg. Her hands hit the surface next, and then her shoulder, falling into a sloppy roll as she screamed. "Damn it!" She cursed, grabbing onto her leg and pulling magic from her SoulGem to block the pain. It hadn't broken at least, just sprained. She had the best healing capabilities out of anyone in their group, but she still couldn't afford the time it would take to heal a broken leg.

With the pain blocked out, she scrambled back to her feet and continued with the chase. She could heal the sprain more properly once she had more time.

They were now just a few blocks from her neighborhood, and she ran out of places to jump to. She had no choice but transform out of her Magical Girl costume and continue on foot, but luckily she was still right on his tail.

She peaked over the edge of the shorter building, and saw no one was on the sidewalk below. She jumped down and became covered in light during her descent. By the time she landed in a crouch she was back to her ordinary clothing.

She ducked behind a light pole, and watched as the car pulled into her neighborhood. Did he really live there after all? Or, she suddenly had another idea that scared her, and she quickly crossed the street to follow after him. They were currently just a few blocks down from Madoka's street, and when Sayaka saw him slow to a stop her paranoia hit an all time high. From where he parked, he would be able to see down Madoka's street and actually see her house. Sayaka didn't know everyone in this neighborhood, but if he lived that close she definitely would have seen him at least once before! That meant, he had been looking for Madoka's house all along! But why?

Sayaka continued down the street, keeping her head low and doing her best to keep something between her and the car so she wouldn't be too noticeable. Then, when he slowly started moving again, and turned down Madoka's street, she quickened her pace.

She hid behind a light post at the corner of Madoka's street and watched as his car parked directly in front of Madoka's house. "Damn it! What the hell is he doing there?" She quickly pulled out her cellphone and called Madoka.

"Come on, Madoka, pick up!" She whispered to herself anxiously as the phone rang.

"Hiii! This is Madoka!"

"Madoka!"

"Sorry I'm not by my phone right now, but leave a message and I'll get right back to ya'!"

"Damn it!" Sayaka cursed as she dialed the number again. After a few rings, the answering machine picked up again and Sayaka ended the call. The scientist guy got out of his car and started walking up the walkway.

Sayaka started typing out a text message for Madoka _'Madoka, there's a guy at your house right now and I'm like 100% sure he is from the lab. Whatever you do, do NOT let him in! CALL ME!'_

She clicked send and watched as the loading bar appeared on her screen. It was taking longer than normal; why was her phone choosing now of all times to be slow? Then, an error message popped up. _'Sorry, message could not be sent. Please try again.'_

"What the hell? Why now?" She said to herself, gritting her teeth as she tried to send it once more, but it resulted in the same error message. "Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!"

In her panicked state, she didn't take notice of the fact that a car had pulled up right behind her and it's door opened.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Idiot." Said a familiar voice.

Sayaka turned around and saw Leiko standing outside of a cab. Her cellphone was in her hand and Sayaka noticed tiny strings of electricity emitting from her fingertips "Leiko? What are you doing here?" Then her eyes narrowed "You're blocking my texts!"

"Hang on a sec." She said to Sayaka as she leaned back into the cab "You take cards right?"

"Yup, just slide it over here." The cab driver said as he handed her a small machine. She paid the fare, and when the cab driver saw that she left a more than generous tip he gave her a hearty thank you.

"Don't mention it." She said dryly, as she shut the door and walked towards Sayaka.

Sayaka tensed up, ready for a confrontation "So, you turned on us after all!" She spat accusingly "That's why you're stopping me from warning Madoka! I bet you put that guy on Kyoko's trail in the first place too! Didn't you!"

Leiko adjusted her glasses with her classic irritated expression spread across her face "What I'm doing, is stopping you from leaving undeniable proof of your involvement in this thing. The phone companies keep records of text messages, you know. What other kinds of stupid things have you been sending?" She scoffed as she walked past Sayaka "Whatever, I'll take a look later. For now, hurry up and follow me before he sees you. Dumbass."

"Hang on! If you aren't working with him, how did you know to come here?"

Leiko cleared her throat "I'll explain later. And if you accuse me of that one more time I really will just leave you to clean up this mess on your own. Which you're doing a fantastic job of, by the way. Now quit wasting time and follow me."

* * *

 **Thanks once again for all readers/reviewers/subscribers!**

 **Chapter 15 is what I'll be considering as the end of part one, which will hopfully be out within a month.**

 **My goal for next chapter (chapter 14) is to have it out in 2 weeks from today.**

 **-Atomyst**


	14. Chapter 14

There was a knock on the door.

"That must be Madoka." Mami said as she got up from her seat and went to let her in. As she thought, the pinkette stood in the doorway, and she didn't look anything like her normal self. Her eyes were normally full of cheer, but they were now red and puffy. Her hair was normally tied into pigtails with neat bows, but it seemed she had rushed it a bit this morning and the ribbons were tied on rather sloppily. The stress from the last week had done a toll on her, and the distress was clear on her face. Mami gave her a compassionate smile "Madoka, you don't have to knock. Please, come in." She said as she held the door open.

"I-I know… I just wasn't sure, so…" She entered the house with her head down. When she saw Sayaka at the table, and Kyoko leaning against the wall with arms folded and a pocky stick hanging from her lips, Madoka forced a smile. "Hello everyone." Then she noticed Leiko clicking away at the computer, and she turned and bowed in her direction. "Hello, Amaya-san." Leiko didn't seem to take any notice of her, so Madoka just stood there uncertainly for a moment.

"Here, come take a seat with us." Mami said softly, as she put a hand on Madoka's shoulder and led her forward "I've got a cup of tea ready for you."

Madoka nodded and went to sit at the small glass table in the middle of the living room. She could tell by the tension in the air that something was up. "Um… why did you ask me to come over so suddenly?" She asked as she was sitting down.

Sayaka gave her a reassuring smile "We found Homura."

"You did?" Madoka asked, nearly jumping out of her seat, although right away from the expression on her best friend's face, she could tell there was going to be some rusty lining to this good news "W-where is she?"

Mami cleared her throat "Well, it was actually Leiko who managed to track her down." She stirred her tea and started to explain "She's ok, she isn't hurt or anything, and Madoka, we are going to do our best to help her. So, everythings going to be alright."

"M-Mami… I don't understand. What's going on?"

Kyoko, never one for grace, just came right out with it "Some asshole government research group kidnapped her. They got her locked up in this underground test lab, or something."

"What?" Madoka looked between all her friends, then back to Kyoko "What are you talking about? The government? Why would they do that?"

Sayaka took over, knowing how fragile Madoka could be, and how painfully direct Kyoko was at times. "Well, as you know, it's thanks to Homura that the city was able to be evacuated before Walpurgis Night. In order to do that, she had to make her powers known, and I guess she got the attention of someone out there who wants to learn more about her… and how her powers work."

Leiko tapped out a few hard key strokes, then stood "We're just lucky they didn't catch on to the rest of us." She said, adjusting her glasses and walking towards the group "I found some pretty detailed logs of all her actions over the last week. Fortunately, she likes to use her time stopping trick when traveling by rooftop, so they usually lost track of her at times like that. They still watched her closely enough to know about her transformation, and they seem to think her ability is teleportation. They've had her locked up for a week now, and they haven't managed to learn much else. Apparently she is being pretty stubborn about not doing any of their little tests."

She looked over towards Madoka "Kaname, they have even spent some time watching you, and staking out your house. But they ultimately decided that you were not of any interest to them. I didn't find anything in their logs to indicate they so much as took a look at any of the rest of us. So, that's at least some good news."

Madoka listened, nodding her head slowly. Her eye's were wide as she sat there and took it all in. "I see… Um… But, I don't understand how you could know all of that."

Kyoko clicked her teeth "Turns out the rookie isn't so useless after all. Yup, I was pretty skeptical about all this, especially since we just recently got Sayaka out of her diapers."

"HEY!" Sayaka shouted, tensing up in Kyoko's direction.

Kyoko just shot Sayaka a smile which instantly released her tension and brought a shade of red to her face. Then, she started walking towards Leiko. "So there's magic that's useful outside of labyrinths, and can't really be used against witches. I've been doing this Magical Girl thing for a while, but never really put too much thought into it before. Let's just say I've recently become _inspired_."

Leiko eyed the redhead suspiciously as she approached her. Kyoko's hand suddenly shot forward and snatched the glasses off of her face. "What the hell are you doing!" Leiko shouted.

"Kyoko…" Mami said patiently "Now is not the time for-"

"Hold on a sec!" Kyoko said, then turned back to Leiko and gave her a grin "I just need to borrow these for a sec." Then she turned around and walked until her back was facing the group. "My specialty is enchantments. I usually use this to clone myself and try to confuse the witch I'm fighting against. It's pretty handy, and it's won a lot of battles for me. But I was thinking, it could be used in a lot of other ways too. Ways I never really thought of before. For example, if I were to change my appearance, make myself taller, or make myself seem older, it might be a little fun for showing off but it wouldn't really be useful against witches, would it?"

"Gives those back…" Leiko said dryly, her eyes squinting "I kind of need them, you know."

Kyoko ignored her and continued with her monolog "They went through a lot of trouble to bring Homura to their little testing facility, and it's been a pretty useless endeavor for them so far. Homura's uncooperative, she feels spiteful towards them, and on occasion she is even violent. Isn't that right, Leiko?"

"Is there some feasible point to all of this, or are you just trying really hard to make yourself look like an ass? Because it's working really well. But yes, based on the reports I've read, the team that is assigned to her is becoming quite frustrated with her lack of cooperation with them."

"So essentially, before they can unlock the secrets of her powers, they must first solve the puzzle of her mind and find a way to get her to work with them." Kyoko bent over with her back still facing the group. There was a flash of light, and when she rose she was suddenly several inches taller than she was before. "So it stands to reason, that if there was someone out there who could _understand_ Homura, and _talk_ to her, and convince her to work with them, they would be quite interested in meeting that person wouldn't they?"

Kyoko turned around, and she now appeared completely different. She no longer looked like a teenage girl, everything from her face, to her posture, and her figure matured to that of a thirty year old woman. The only thing that didn't fit the profile was her unzipped hoodie which exposed her navel and her blue shorts which would be totally inappropriate on the thirty year old woman she now appeared to be.

Kyoko grinned as she adjusted the glasses "World class psychologist Dr. Sakura, at your service."

"You're completely out of your mind." Sayaka said dryly.

"Awwww, but that's what you love about me." Kyoko laughed. As she walked back towards Leiko, she began to shrink back to her normal size and her face returned to normal. She took the glasses off and held them out to their proper owner.

Leiko snatched the glasses out of Kyoko's hand and returned them to her face "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here, and assume I missed something during that idiotic display. So, please enlighten me. What the HELL was that about?"

"You're like, some kind of super hacker, right? Well then, make a fake identity for me and find a way to get me into Homura's room. You can do that, can't you?"

"Do you even hear yourself when you talk?" Leiko asked with a sigh "But fine, I'll humor this for a moment. Sure, I could fake all the credentials you want, and even fake a few emails between the lab staff and probably get you inside. Looking good on paper is one thing, but keeping up appearances in person is another. Do you really think YOU of all people can present yourself as an educated professional? I'm betting it would take them five minutes to see through the charade."

Kyoko folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at the insult "Don't underestimate me, chick."

"Kyoko, sorry but I'm with Leiko on this one." Sayaka said "It's a creative idea, I'll give you that, but it seems a little reckless. I mean, you don't know the first thing about psychology. And what if something happens to you while you are in there? I know how you feel, but if you end up getting caught as well, that won't do Homura any good."

"I'll just read some psychology books or something." Kyoko shrugged "It's not like they are going to quiz me the second I walk through the door. Besides, if we are still against the _breaking in and kicking some ass_ scenario, I don't see any other way."

Leiko scoffed and looked towards Mami "Tomoe, could you please talk some sense into her?"

"Actually…" Mami said, stirring her tea "I think this is worth at least discussing a little further. As long as Kyoko holds up her enchantment and they don't discover her magic she should be fine. Really, worst case scenario they just end up firing her, then we are just back to where we started anyway. Homura is going to need a GriefSeed eventually, and one trip into the lab will also give us a lot of information we don't have right now regarding security."

"Haha! Alright Mami!" Kyoko cheered "At least someone gets it."

"This all depends, of course, on if Leiko can set things up through her hacking." Mami continued "So, Leiko, do you think you can do it?"

Leiko sighed "Yeah, I can do it alright, but I'll just once again state very loudly for the record that I think this is insane."

"Hey, you're a Magical Girl now." Kyoko winked and put a thumb up "Insanity comes with the job!"

They spent the rest of the evening discussing the plans, and as they did so Madoka's mood brightened more and more, the previously hopeless situation started to seem more and more manageable. Leiko said she would need some time to put everything together, but gave her guarantee that she could put together a rock solid alias that would be completely untraceable as a fraud. They looked around on the internet for some books Kyoko should familiarize herself with, and even started working on some conversation techniques to get Kyoko out of the habit of swearing and using slang terms.

When they were satisfied they got a good start on things, Kyoko and Sayaka went out to find some more 'professional' clothing for Kyoko to wear as her alias 'Kay Sakura'. Leiko spent the rest of the evening plugging away at the computer she set up in Mami's living room, seemingly oblivious to anything else.

"So Madoka, how are you holding up?" Mami asked her as she offered her a fresh cup of tea.

"Ok." Madoka said, giving her a smile as she took the cup from her "Better, anyway. I'm still worried about Homura, but this is still better than not knowing what happened… She just suddenly disappeared one day with no explanation… I…" Madoka shook her head "I was really scared."

Mami nodded "Based off the reports Leiko read, things really are not even that bad for her in there. There was a huge list of things they stocked her room with. TV, games, books, and anything else she wants she just has to ask for and they bring it to her." Mami sipped her tea "Of course, we still need to get her out of there. Even despite all those things, what they are doing to her is wrong, and I promise you Madoka, we are all going to do our best to help her. After everything she has done for the rest of us, we owe it to her."

Madoka nodded "Thanks Mami. I miss her, and I'm still scared for her. I know she must feel so lonely in there, but I'm glad she at least isn't getting hurt."

* * *

Homura tilted her head back and started laughing wildly "That's the worst monkey I've ever seen, KAY!" Her head fell back down and her cheek rested on the table. Her face was red from laughing as she looked up at Kyoko and smiled her delirious half minded smile "You're really bad at this."

"Oh, and well how about showing me yours?" Kyoko said, tapping her pointer finger against the picture that would now reveal a message. The paper would look like it was covered in doodles to the camera, but to the two girls, it was all writing. Homura was still quite obviously completely out of it, but at least had her wits together enough to not blow their cover. It seemed she still had her grip on reality, and she understood the situation, but Kyoko still worried she might slip and say or do something foolish.

 _'Please stay in character! I'm using enchantments - write back so we can talk - I'll hide it.'_

 _'I need a GriefSeed, really badly. I'm in trouble. NEED TO GET OUT!'_

 _'We have a plan- let GriefSeed hatch- don't kill witch! Use the barrier to get past the doors.'_

That message had forced a disturbed smile onto Homura's face as she said "That's a good idea…"

"I'm sorry?" Kyoko quickly interjected, giving her a hard expression to remind her not to say anything stupid "I don't understand…"

"I had an idea!" Homura smiled "Sorry, I forgot what it was." and she knocked herself on the head. Her expression showed that she realized her mistake and was trying to apologize for it. Then she went back to drawing.

 _'Will it work?'_

 _'You need to get the lab evacuated so the witch is forced to chase them outside.'_ Kyoko swallowed nervously before writing the next part, worried to death of what Homura's reaction might be _'Do you have bombs?'_

When Homura read that message, as Kyoko expected, she had a hard time containing herself. She locked both of her hands over her mouth and held her breath to contain her laughter, but it was ultimately futile. "I'm sorry KAY!" Homura laughed "You're so bad!"

Homura picked up the pencil and scribbled out a short message. To make up for the short length of the message, Kyouko just enchanted it to look like a picture of an emoticon with its tongue out in a teasing gesture. _'lots of bombs!'_

"Hey, I never claimed to be that great of an artist in the first place, you know." Kyoko said with a smile, as she started on her next message.

 _'Good, force them to evacuate - we need to stop this before they get suspicious - how can I get the GriefSeed to you?'_

Homura frowned as she read the message then scrawled out another small message of her own _'play along'_. Then she stood, and started walking away, towards her bedroom.

"Homura? Are you alright?" Kyoko asked. Then, there was a flash of light and Homura began to transform.

She turned her head and said "You can go now." as the black ribbons wrapped around her limbs and morphed into her Magical Girl attire.

"Homura? I don't understand, you seem upset."

The transformation complete, and suddenly Homura disappeared. The table that was in front of Kyoko suddenly flipped over on it's side, and Kyoko jumped out of her seat in surprise. "You think you can help me? Dr. Sakura?" Kyoko looked around, and saw that Homura was now standing with her head leaning against the frame of her bedroom door.

Kyoko lightly brushed her hand against the pocket she had the GriefSeed hidden in, and found that it was now gone. Homura must have grabbed it while time was stopped for her.

"Yes, of course. I'll do anything to try and help you, Homura. There's no need to-"

"Make them stop messing with me!" Homura said, her head tilted back and Kyoko could see tears were falling from her eyes "Dr. Endou is a bad man. He's going to end up killing me… I'm going to die here if something doesn't change. That's why…"

Kyoko took a few steps forward with her hand out, and suddenly one of the chairs flew across the room and crashed into the wall. Kyoko ducked down and let out a surprised scream. _'Damn Homura, over doing it much?'_ Kyoko thought, but then realized that these weren't pretend emotions. These are the things Homura had really been feeling, and although Kyoko was sure none of Homura's anger was meant to be directed at her, she is the only person Homura was in contact with so she was the only person she could take it out on.

"I have to get out of here. I have to…" Her voice lowered into almost a whisper as she stepped into the darkness of her unlit bedroom "I have to…"

"Homura," Kyoko spoke into the empty doorway "I'm going to do everything I can to help you. I'm going to go talk with them right now, and discuss some things with them." She swallowed "What they are doing to you is wrong."

"You can leave now." Came Homura's emotionless voice from the darkness of the bedroom, and then in the blink of an eye the doorway was closed.

Kyoko nodded and walked back to the front of the apartment and stood in front of the giant steel door. She looked directly into the camera and said "Ok, I'm leaving now. Dr. Endou, I'm going to want to speak with you again."

* * *

"Ok so what do we do then?" Sayaka asked. Peeking over a bush down the street from Madoka's house as they watched the scientist knocking on the door. Leiko was much shorter than Sayaka, and thus had to stand up on her toes to see over the bush.

"I'm thinking, ok? If she answered her phone, that's one thing, but sending a text message was a bad idea." Leiko pulled out her cellphone and started clicking around on it. "Mami is still on the other side of town, so she won't be any help."

Sayaka raised an eyebrow, and looked at the screen of Leiko's cellphone which just looked like colorful static to her. "Wait, how did you know that?" Leiko cleared her throat nervously, and flipped her phone closed. "Come to think of it, you never answered how you ended up here in the first place…" Sayaka's eyes narrowed as she started putting it together "You've been keeping tabs on us through our cell phones! Haven't you?"

Leiko took an indignant posture as she adjusted her glasses and said "Well, yeah, and it's a good thing I did, too! Otherwise you would be stuck dealing with this situation on your own, and I highly doubt that would have gone over well."

"Just how long have you been doing this?" Sayaka's eyes narrowed even further as she thought back "Wait, that explains how you were always able to find us when we were out on witch hunts! You've been doing this since before we even knew you! What other ways have you been spying on us? Huh?"

"Just the GPS hack." Leiko said, deciding there was no need to admit to the bug in Mami's apartment. "But shouldn't we talk about this later? Nows not really the best time."

Sayaka nodded "Yeah ok, I guess you're right." and her attention went back to watching Madoka's house.

Madoka's father answered the door, and he and the scientist started talking, but neither Leiko nor Sayaka could hear what they were saying from how far away they were.

"You can delete the records from the phone companies, can't you?" Sayaka asked "Why don't we just send a warning and let you delete it later?"

"If she isn't picking up her phone, what makes you think she is more likely to notice a text in the first place? Besides, if this guy's goal is to start snooping around, what if he happens to see Madoka's phone and check the text? More than that, there's no guarantee they aren't watching Madoka's phone remotely. I wouldn't be able to tell unless I actually had it in my possession. Basically, they might not even have to wait to get the messages from the phone companies."

Mr. Kaname talked to the scientist for a little longer, then stepped aside and gestured for him to come in. "No!" Sayaka said with gritted teeth "Why is he letting him in? Oh man, this is really messed up!"

"How did this start?" Leiko asked "Why did he come here, and how is it that you ended up following him?"

"Well, I have no idea why he is at Madoka's house now, but I just happened to cross paths with him back at the produce store. Apparently they had video of Kyoko stealing from them, and they showed it to him!"

"Damn, that's not good. Alright, well there's no choice." Leiko finally said "You are going to have to go try and warn Madoka in person."

"No way! He already saw me, if I show up at Madoka's house now he is going to recognize me and know something is up."

"Well, why the hell did you let him see you?"

"It's before I knew who he was, ok? I couldn't help it! But now, if I show up at Madoka's he is going to know I followed him." Sayaka thought, then turned to Leiko "You have to do it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Go knock on Madoka's door, and act like you are just coming over for a visit." Sayaka explain.

"What? No way! Then he would end up seeing me, there's no way I'm just going to blow my identity like that!"

"If you're careful, he won't have any reason to suspect that you have anything to do with Homura and Kyoko. You'll just be another teenage girl to his eyes."

"Look, I only showed up here as a courtesy in the first place. This whole thing has nothing to do with me!" Leiko shouted "I'm not going to risk my own life for one of yours!"

Sayaka frowned, and instead of shouting back like Leiko expected, her voice just became very solemn "If that's how it is, then I guess you really never were one of us in the first place. Fine, I get it, and don't worry about it, I don't blame you." Sayaka started walking forward "I guess I wouldn't risk myself for someone I didn't even consider a friend either."

Leiko was a bit taken aback by what Sayaka had just said, and it took a moment for her to process how serious Sayaka was. Then, she realized what Sayaka was planning to do "Wait! Where are you going?" Sayaka turned back, standing right out in plain sight "Get down! Idiot!"

"If you have another plan, let me know right now, but if you are not going to warn Madoka then I have to be the one to do it." She shrugged "Who knows, maybe this guy won't put two and two together, and assume it's just a coincidence that he saw me at the produce store. Well, wish me luck."

* * *

After feeding Tatsuya and setting him up in front of the TV to watch cartoons, Tomohisa went to his daughter's room to see how she was doing. He knocked on the door and asked "Hey Madoka, can I come in?"

"Yes, come in." She answered back in her small voice. She was sitting at her desk, looking at a hand drawn picture of a cat. There was a crease in it from where it had been folded, and the name 'Amy' printed english letters. He knew his daughter was a pretty good artist, but that picture didn't seem to be in her style. There was usually more of a cartoonish quality to Madoka's drawings. This cat picture was a very well done sketch, and it was clear a lot of time went into getting the shading just right.

"Did you draw that?" Her father asked.

Madoka shook her head "No, Homura drew it for me."

"Oh, so you've seen her recently?"

Madoka shook her head again. She had that sad look creeping back on her face, it seemed like her bad mood had not passed yet.

Tomohisa frowned and asked "Is everything ok between you two?" But Madoka didn't answer. He didn't know what had happened between them, but he figured she would talk about it when she was ready, and probably with her mother. If they had broken up, then that would explain Madoka's bad mood, especially since it all would have happened so quickly. Having her first love and her first heartbreak in such close proximity of each other would be pretty difficult for her, especially considering how sensitive Madoka could be. He didn't understand how it could have happened though, she and Homura seemed so close they were practically inseparable, and there was no signs they were starting to fight. One day, Homura just stopped coming over. He didn't know, but if Madoka's bad mood continued much longer, he figured Junko would step in and be able to cheer her up. She was always better with these kinds of things. For now, though, it seemed Madoka didn't want to talk about it.

"So I was thinking, since you are stuck here anyway, do you want to come help me in the garden for a little bit?"

Madoka thought it over and then nodded her head. "Sure, I'll help." She did enjoy gardening and she thought it would help her get her mind off things for a little while. She was just so anxious to get word from Sayaka that Kyoko had made it back ok. She was even more anxious about Homura's actual escape attempt. If it didn't work, not only would they be out of ideas to save her, who knew how badly the lab would end up treating her? They were already being so cruel, she couldn't stand the thought of poor Homura-chan being mistreated any more.

"Alright, I'll meet you out there." Her father said with a smile, then shut the door behind himself as he left her room.

She picked up her phone and thought about sending Sayaka another text to ask for an update, but she realized Kyoko wouldn't be getting out of the lab for at least another hour. Without Leiko keeping tabs on things, they really wouldn't have any information until that happened.

She set her phone down on her desk, next to the cat picture.

She changed her clothes into something she wouldn't mind getting dirty, a pair of blue jeans and a light pink shirt, then headed out to the garden to help her father. As she passed by Tatsuya in the living room, she patted him on the head and said good morning. He didn't seem to take much notice of her, as he had his hand in his mouth with his attention focused on the cartoon he was watching.

When she made it to the back yard, her father was already kneeled down by one of the tomato plants with a small pair of shears, trimming the leaves. When he saw his daughter, he looked up and said "We've just got a few things to do. I bought some new seed the other day that I want to plant, and there's also some weeds to pull. Or, if you want you can help me with shearing the mature plants. Whatever you feel like doing."

Her father had shown her how to do all three of those things. She liked to leave the shearing up to him because it was probably the most delicate of the three tasks, and he was a lot better at it than her. Pulling weeds tended to be one of the dirtier jobs, and the least fun, so she opted for planting the new seed. "I'll do the planting."

"Ok," Her father smiled and pointed over to an empty bed of freshly mulched dirt "I already have that bed cleared out, so all you have to do is dig the holes and put the seeds in. Just remember to space them out the way I showed you."

"Ok!" Madoka said as she went to retrieve a small hand shovel, then kneeled down infront of the bed to get to work. Being outside in the sun, and with a job to do, had a therapeutic effect on her, letting her forget about her troubles just a little bit. They were still there, but at least it wasn't eating at her as constantly as it had been when she had nothing to occupy her mind with. For now, all she had to do was focus on digging the holes, smelling the smell of fresh dirt, and planting the seeds. After a while, she started humming to herself as she continued with the work.

Tomohisa took a glance over at his daughter and was glad to see her with a somewhat happy expression on her face again. Neither he nor his wife knew what was going on with her these last few weeks, but hopefully whatever it was it would pass soon. He supposed she was a teenager, he had heard some of his friends who were slightly older parents refer to the teens as 'the trouble years'. He always thought Madoka would be an exception to that, but it looked like it was going to be somewhat the same for her.

Then, he heard a knock coming from the front door and he looked up. "Hm, I wonder who that could be." He said as he stood and took off his gloves "Guess I better go see. Just let me know if you need anything. Ok?"

"Ok dad." Madoka said with a smile.

Tatsuya was still at his place in front of the TV, except he had rolled over onto his side, with his hand still in his mouth, and a small puddle of drool staining the carpet. Tomohisa stepped over him and went to answer the door. He opened it to reveal a tall man wearing a trench coat and holding a pamphlet.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

"Hello, my name is Kito Tomosa, I'm with Mitakihara Home Securities, if I could have a few moments of your time I was hoping I could share some information with you."

"Well, it's not that it's a bad time, but I don't think we are interested in purchasing any security systems right now. Thank you anyway, though."

"Actually, we've selected your home to have a system installed for free. If you are interested, of course. We are new to your area and we are trying to spread awareness of our service. Since your house is in the middle of the street, it's a perfect location to help make your neighbors aware of our service. All that we would ask is to have a small sign with our company's logo at the corner of your lot."

"Well, I don't know…" Tomohisa said.

"I understand your hesitation, but, if you could give me just a few minutes I'll be able to share some information that will help you make a more informed decision."

"Well…" Tomohisa thought it over for another moment before answering "Alright, I suppose it can't hurt. Why don't you come in and have a seat?"

* * *

Kaiji entered the Kaname household and was led to a small table in the livingroom. This is the place Homura had spent most of her time prior to being abducted. If she wasn't at her own apartment on the other side of town, or scaling the rooftops of the city, she was usually here. They never were able to get a clear answer to why she would go out into the city at night, as they often lost track of her due to her teleportation skill. In the lab when Homura was asked about this, she of course refused to give them an answer. The best they ever got out of her is that she just liked 'going for walks'.

The team had a stakeout on this house during that time period, and kept an eye on Madoka as well, but they ultimately determined that there was nothing abnormal about her and she was of no interest to them.

Kaiji noticed the toddler laying in front of the TV screen, oblivious to anything else, and asked "How old is he?"

"Three." Tomohisa said as he sat down across from him "I also have a fourteen year old daughter, she's out back in the garden right now."

 _Good_ , Kaiji thought. He would play along with this salesman routine just long enough to avoid suspicion, and wait for a chance to go snooping. Right now, his best plan would be to ask to use the bathroom before leaving, and then make a detour into Madoka's bedroom to see if he could find anything. There was definitely a connection between Kay Sakura and Kyoko Sakura, there was no doubt about that anymore, but now he just needed to connect them to Homura somehow. If he could connect them to Madoka, then that would also serve as a connection to Homura since they were apparently so close, and that's what his goal was right now.

"I have a ten year old myself, a boy. He's been pretty easy so far, I'm told when they get into their teens that's when you have to start watching out."

Tomohisa laughed "Yes, I'm starting to find that to be true myself."

"I don't know, I'm not looking forward to it. Dating, going to parties, I'm told I should also keep an eye on the kinds of friends they start bringing around. My brother's daughter, my niece, is quite a handful. She recently got caught stealing from a produce store. She stole a bag of apples of all things." He laughed, but watched Tomohisa's expression closely. Maybe if this Kyoko knew Madoka, Madoka's parents would be familiar with her and know something about her shop lifting escapades.

Tomohisa just laughed, showing no recognition toward that kind of an action "Well, I don't think I need to worry about something like that with Madoka, she's a good girl and she tends to keep herself out of trouble. Her friends all seem like good kids as well."

Kaiji nodded and cleared his throat "Anyway, I suppose I should get down to business." He produced a pamphlet that he had received at his own home which somehow migrated to his car, and set it down on the table. "This pamphlet will give you a good idea of our services, but you can ignore the pricing because as I mentioned we would like to provide yours for free. For now, I'll give you a brief rundown on what we do."

Kaiji had skimmed through the pamphlet while sitting in his car a few minutes ago, and started reciting what he could remember from it. He of course wasn't actually trying to sell a security system, so he just needed to stall for a little while until it wouldn't seem too strange to ask to use the bathroom. When the toddlers cartoon came to an end, however, Kaiji got lucky by being provided with the perfect distraction.

Tatsuya started sniffing as his cartoons were replaced by some boring commercial for a law office, and his sniffs soon turned to all out crying. He rolled onto his stomach and started banging his small fists on the carpet as he screamed.

"Oh, sorry, can you hold on a moment?" Tomohisa said to the pretend salesman as he went to tend to his son.

"No problem, take all the time you need." Kaiji said, then after another moment he added "Actually, if it's not any trouble, could I use your restroom?"

"Oh, sure." Tomohisa said as he scooped his son up into his arms "It's right down that hall to the left, you can't miss it."

Kaiji got up and went to make his move. As he walked down the hall, he pushed each door open just enough to peek inside. The first room was the parents room, the second room had a crib in the middle which was obviously the baby's, then he looked into a room with pink walls and a bed that was covered with stuffed animals. Kaji found the bathroom, and opened the door just to shut it again, loudly enough so it would be heard downstairs, but he never actually went inside.

Instead, he doubled back to Madoka's room, and carefully pushed the door open, being sure not to make a sound. He entered the room, and gently closed it behind himself without actually locking the handle into place, then he started looking around. Based off the appearance of the room, Madoka certainly was a different personality type than Homura. The stuffed animals saw to that, as well as the generally bright colors and girly atmosphere. He saw a closed laptop laying on her bed, and he thought that would be the best place to start snooping. Maybe he would find a folder with pictures of Madoka and her friends, maybe one of Kyoko if it turned out they did know each other, and that's all he would need. He never made it to the laptop though, because something else caught his eye.

On her desk, he saw a cellphone lying next to a drawing. It took a moment for it to sink in, and his attention was more focused on the cellphone at first, but when it hit him his eyes shot back to the drawing and locked on. He had seen it before. He had seen that exact same drawing. It was back at the Anomalous Research Facility. It had been given to Kay Sakura; drawn by Homura Akemi.

Upon the discovery, he realized something. Though he had been searching for a connection, part of him never wanted to find it. Now that he had an undeniable link between Kay, Kyoko, and Homura, he was at a crossroads, and he didn't know what to do with it.

His hand was visibly shaking as he reached for the cellphone. He already had all the proof he needed, but he couldn't give up an opportunity to read Madoka's texts, and see just how involved in this she really was. Just before his hand reached the phone, he heard a loud quick knocking on the front door of the house, along with the bell being rung over and over again in quick succession.

* * *

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Tomohisa hollard, uncharacteristically upset with whoever it was that was beating his door down. Even Madoka heard the commotion from out in the garden and came inside, gingerly removing the work gloves from her hands and watching the front door questioningly.

When Tomohisa opened the door, he saw a small girl in a black hoodie, with thick rimmed glasses over her green eyes, and braided white hair. "Where's Madoka?" She said, rather rudely.

"Madoka's…" Tomohisa started, but when Leiko looked past him and saw Madoka in the living room, she didn't bother waiting for an answer and just let herself right in, practically pushing past him "Hey, you wait just a second, young lady."

"Where is he?" Leiko asked Madoka directly.

"L-Leiko? Why are… _Who?"_ Her eyes grew wide with worry when she saw the intense look on Leiko's face.

"Your bedroom, come on!" And with that, Leiko started running up the stairs. Madoka and her father following right after the white haired girl.

"Young lady, what exactly do you think you're-" Tomohisa stopped chiding the rude young girl when he made it into the hall, and saw the salesman coming out of his daughters bedroom. "Hey! You said you were going to use the restroom! What's going on here?" Tomohisa demanded, quickly getting between the two girls and the man who he now saw as an intruder.

Kaiji walked right at him, not saying a word, and with a dark expression on his face.

"You better explain yourself, mister!" Tomohisa demanded once again "Y-you stop right there!" Not being a fighter he had no idea what to do in this situation, but he held his hand out in an attempt to command the man to a stop.

"Sorry about this." Kaiji said, then grabbed him by the wrist and twisted, using a submission technique which he had learned from his detective brother, to force the scrawny stay-at-home dad down to his knees.

"Daddy!" Madoka shouted.

The man let go, and then pushed past the two girls and made a run for it. Madoka went to her father's side to see if he was ok, and Tomohisa shouted after the man "I'm calling the police!"

Leiko ignored everything else, and went right to Madoka's bedroom. She went inside, saw the cat picture, and physically felt her heart drop. What worried her even more is the cellphone that was sitting right next to it. She put her hand on it, and with one small pull of magic she knew the phone had not been turned on in over an hour, so at least the scientist had not made it that far. That was good, because with that one pull of magic, she was instantly given a transcript of Madoka's texts. Some of the phrases that stood out were _'GriefSeed' 'Kay Sakura's email' 'Kyoko'_ and _'Still going through with the plan'._ Thank GOD he had not seen those, although, it might not matter because that simple drawing which Homura had given to Kyoko (Kay Sakura to the scientist's eyes) was likely all he needed.

"Madoka, what's going on? Do you know anything about this?" Tomohisa was asking his daughter as Leiko exited the bedroom. He turned to Leiko "What about you? What is this?" From the living room, Tatsuya could be heard screaming his head off.

"A disaster." Leiko said to him, not so much as glancing at him as she continued down the hall.

"Wait, Leiko where are you going?" Madoka asked, chasing after her.

"Do you have to ask?" Leiko said, turning and adjusting her glasses as she continued to walk. "I'm getting the hell out of town, and I suggest you do the same."

* * *

Homura sat on top of the table in the middle of her 'apartment' with her legs crossed. At least five cameras were pointed at her, but none could see her inside her own private time. She stared down at the GriefSeed in her hand, watching the black fog rolling around inside it, thinking about how it would soon become much darker. Much, much darker.

She almost thought she could hear a voice, like a choked whispering coming from inside the seed. Although she couldn't understand the words, she knew what it wanted, and strange runic symbols danced around in her head. It was hungry, it wanted despair, and it wanted to be set free. With her curse ridden SoulGem so close, the entity that lived inside the seed was becoming hungry, and it begged for the cursed SoulGem to move just a little closer, so it could eat.

She undid the top two buttons of her Magical Girl uniform, and reached down to her chest through the neck. She released her SoulGem from being embedded in her skin and pulled it out from under her shirt. She carefully set it to the side, cautious not to let it touch against the GriefSeed yet, and redid her blouse.

When that was done, she picked the gem back up, and stared at it the same way she had been staring at the GriefSeed.

As she stared, and watched the dark fog swimming around under the surface of the gem, she could hear another voice, a more powerful one. When Homura focused on it, she got a mental image. _Red_ … a red field that stretched as far as the eye could see. A sweet smell. Flowers; spider lilies. That voice had spoken to her before, it was a similar voice to the one coming from the GriefSeed, except so much more powerful. So much more personal, because it was the voice of her own despair.

 _"We enter the worlds that the witches create. Their worlds - their perfect paradise - and we destroy them. Then, when we are done, we feed them our grief. Go figure I'd sympathise with them, I mean, they are what we become after all. Isn't that right?"_

Who had said that? It was Sayaka, in another timeline, one that was long forgotten, but those words had always stuck with Homura.

It was in a timeline when Homura told Mami, along with all the others, the truth about Magical Girls. Homura was able to save the rest of them from Mami; but she wasn't able to save Mami from herself. Sayaka seeing her senpai's labyrinth proved to be too much for the bluenette, and of course she refused to use Mami's GriefSeed to purify herself. Sayaka's witch hatched soon after, and then Kyoko's.

In that timeline, Homura never made it to Walpurgisnacht; she turned back just as Madoka finished saying the words to complete her own contract, tears streaming from her eyes.

Homura had to block it out, she couldn't listen to that voice which lingered inside her own SoulGem, her own body. If she did listen, it would become more and more convincing. It would try to convince her to just give up, let her suffering come to an end, and go to a world of her own making. Her own personal utopia.

But if she did that, then she would lose the ability to protect Madoka and that is the thought that always kept her going. Then, whenever she purified her gem, the voice would disappear to the absolute extreme that she would forget that it was ever there at all. At least, until the next time she felt her resolve quavering, and her despair rising, then the voice would return. The sweet smell of the flowers would be there, and she would remember that it was always there, all along.

She pressed her SoulGem against the GriefSeed. Watched it take in her corruption, and grow darker. She watched, and listened, and when the voice of the Nutcracker Queen lowered to an inaudible whisper, she let go. The GriefSeed pulsed, and screamed; there was more to be taken, it wanted more. Homura wouldn't let it have the rest, though. Not yet. She just needed a few more hours before the plan could be set into motion.

She got down from the table, and noticed her sketchbook laying on the ground. It was open to the picture of a spider lily she had drawn earlier that day. She stared at it, feeling like she had forgotten something. It was like a half remembered dream. Earlier she said it was a scary picture. Why had she said that? She couldn't remember.

She hid the GriefSeed in the bathroom, under the sink, and brought her SoulGem back to the bedroom with her. Then she resumed time, and went to bed earlier than usual. After purifying her SoulGem, she already felt a little better, but perhaps some sleep would let the effects of the drug die down even more. Either way, she had to wait until nighttime when there would be the least number of people in the lab. Then she would feed the unborn witch the last of her grief; and let it hatch.

Homura smiled. They wanted to learn about magic, huh? The fools had no idea what their curiosity was about to unleash.

* * *

 **Originally I had a lot more planned for this chapter, but after getting to a certain point and still having a lot more to get to, I realized it was going to take 2 chapters. Thus, chapter 16 will now be the actual end to part one. The bright side, you guys are getting a fresh update super early!**

 **Also, I'll take a moment to promote Axius27's spin off "Test Subject One: Ransom". If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend that you do. It's a fanfiction of my fanfiction, and as corny as that may sound it is actually quite good and definitely worth the read!**

 **Thanks again to readers/reviewers/followers!**

 **-Atomyst**


	15. Chapter 15

By the time everyone made it out of the house, the tires of the intruder's car were already screeching and taking off. Sayaka had been hiding out down the street, but was now running towards them. Madoka had followed Leiko out of the house, and her father was close behind. When he saw Sayaka coming from down the street, he adjusted his glasses and said "Sayaka? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hey Mr. K! Well I was coming to visit Madoka… Um, what happened just now? Was there an argument?"

"I honestly have no idea what that was about." Tomohisa said, rubbing his wrist which still hurt just a little bit "I'm thinking I should call the police, though. Is there an off chance you saw the licence plate, Sayaka?"

Sayaka scratched the back of her head "No, sorry Mr. K, I didn't think to." In reality she had, after spending half an hour chasing him through the city, but it would be no good to get the police involved because if that man was with the lab then chances are the police would end up being on his side.

"Why didn't you try to stop him?" Leiko interjected towards Sayaka. "What, did you just stand there and watch him go?"

Sayaka laughed awkwardly, then spoke to Leiko through gritted teeth. "Well what did you expect me to do, _Leiko_? Blow his car up with my secret magic powers or something?"

Leiko adjusted her glasses "No… that would be a bad idea." Then she turned to start walking away. "Well, I'd better get going."

"Wait just a second young lady." Tomohisa said, stepping after her. "I get the impression you know something about this, so do you mind explaining?"

Leiko turned with a bored expression on her face. "Hm? About that guy? No I don't know anything."

"You came storming into my house and said 'where is he', then went right after him. Something's going on here." Then he turned to his daughter "And Madoka, if you know anything about this…"

"N-no daddy! I- um…" She thought for a moment, her eyes shifting around the way they tended to do when she was thinking of a lie. Luckily her mother wasn't here, because she would have seen right through it. "I-I accidently took one of Leiko's stuffed animals home with me the other night, and she wanted it back really badly. Th-that's what she meant when she said 'where is he'."

Sayaka palmed her face. ' _Come on Madoka, is that the best you could come up with?'_

Tomohisa looked over to Leiko. "Is that true? All of that was over a stuffed animal?"

Sayaka facepalmed once again, twice as hard. ' _He actually bought it!'_

"Of course not, that's redic-" Leiko was cut off by Sayaka throwing an arm over her shoulders.

"Hey! No need to be embarrassed!" Sayaka laughed and tightened her grip around Leiko's neck. "The secrets out! Everyone already knows how crazy you are about those stuffed animals, so just let it go!"

Trapped in Sayaka's embrace, Leiko's voice turned cold and murderous. "I'll give you three seconds to-"

"Anyway! I'm glad I ran into you." Sayaka said as she released the small snow-haired girl. "Mami needed to see you… soooo, yup. Better get going. Come on!" Then she grabbed Leiko by the arm and started pulling her along, which warranted an even more sinister expression on the small girl's face. Sayaka then turned to wave goodbye to the Kaname's. "See you later Madoka! Bye Mr. K!"

"Oh… Ok, bye Sayaka." Tomohisa said, putting his hands on his hips and seeming really confused as the two girls continued down the street. "Well Madoka, guess we'd better… Madoka?" He turned to see his daughter rushing back into the house. A few seconds later she came back out of the house holding a small stuffed pig.

"Daddy, I know I'm grounded but I need to go give this to Leiko."

"Well, I guess that's alright." Tomohisa said, and not a second later Madoka was chasing them down the street.

It took her a minute to catch up, because they had been going at a rather quick pace. When they noticed her approaching they both slowed their pace and turned to her. Madoka was slightly out of breath when she reached them, but it only took her a moment to regain herself. She went right for Leiko and pushed the stuffed pig into her chest, forcing her to take a hold of it. "What the hell are you giving me this for?"

"So my story doesn't look suspicious!" Madoka shouted at her, with an uncharacteristically loud tone to her voice. Her face went red, she balled her fists at her sides and shouted: "Stupid!"

Sayaka cleared her throat and took a few steps back, to get out of the blast radius. It was a pretty rare sight, but it seems Leiko had managed to incur the wrath of _MAD_ oka.

Leiko adjusted her glasses, taking on an indignant posture. "Whatever, it's not like-"

Madoka cut her off before she could say any more. "Stop it! Quit acting like you don't care about anything! You really upset me the other day, you know! And why did you start ignoring all of our calls?"

"Well, I... quit the team… so…"

"You still don't have the right to ignore people who care about you!" Madoka let out a frustrated yell. "AH! You're so selfish!"

Leiko coughed and let her eyes shift away dismissively. "I mean, I never asked you to…" Madoka's face scrunched up even more, signaling that she was about to go into _MAD_ oka overdrive mode. It was about as rare a sighting as the Loch Ness Monster, and more destructive than a _Violent Typhoon_. As much as Sayaka would have loved to see Madoka tell Leiko off, there was another much more pressing matter to attend to.

"Hey Madoka." Sayaka said, putting a hand on her shoulder, which seemed to calm her down somewhat. Leiko had her arms folded, and that smug conceited look on her face. Sayaka _really_ would have liked to just let Madoka loose on her, but knew this wasn't the time. "I'm sure you'll get another chance to tell her off, but I don't think now is the best time."

"I know…" Madoka said grudgingly, letting some of her anger slip as she was reminded of the bad situation they all found themselves in. "But she can't just keep…" Madoka shook her head and looked back up at Leiko. Leiko's facial expression seemed to have become somewhat more docile, showing that she at least felt some guilt. Her pride would never let her admit something like that, though.

"So Leiko, I never got a clear answer, what exactly happened in there?" Sayaka asked.

"As you know, that guy is from the lab. He saw the cat picture Homura drew sitting on Madoka's desk." She sighed and looked away from the other two girls. "You should understand now. It's all over, we've been-"

"Wait!" Sayaka's eyes widened out of fear. "Kyoko's still in there! We… we…" She started glancing around, as if she were either looking for a solution, or looking out for an attacker. "Damn it! We have to do something! We've wasted too much time already. Come on, we have to go after him!"

"Useless." Leiko said, folding her arms.

Sayaka instantly turned on her, and grabbed onto her hoodie with both hands. "Are you going to be helpful or not?" She shouted. "Because we don't have time for this! If you're out, just say you're out and go run away somewhere!"

"Sayaka!" Madoka said, grabbing onto her arm and pulling her off of Leiko. Sayaka didn't put up much of a fight, and let Leiko go. Sayaka still stared her down rather intensely, but it wasn't out of anger. It was more of a reminder that she was in no mood to have any of her time wasted.

Leiko swallowed and readjusted her glasses, her hand visibly shaking. "Look, I'm just saying. You were just barely able to keep up with him before when you followed him here, and he already has a huge head start on us. Besides, I can't travel at the same speed you can, and you would need me to track him."

"Track him? We already know where he's going, the lab!"

"If by some miracle you managed to get there first, it still wouldn't matter. By the time he gets there it's already going to be too late." Leiko's eyes suddenly shot open and she pulled her phone out of her back pocket. She quickly flipped it open, making no effort to conceal the rainbow sparks which started emitting from her fingertips. "That's assuming he didn't make a phonecall already… I'm checking now."

"Damn it!" Sayaka said through gritted teeth. She hated just standing still like this, her legs were anxious to do something- anything! But, part of her knew Leiko was right. There had to be something they could do though, and she was racking her brain for an answer.

"Good news is, he hasn't made any phone calls yet." Leiko said, "And I'm setting up a block now, so he won't be able to. I also checked his location, and verified that he is indeed on his way to the lab."

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Sayaka asked "If Kyoko is still there when he arrives…" She shook her head, not wanting to think about that scenario.

"What about Mami?" Madoka asked "She's closer, maybe she can catch him?"

More sparks came from Leiko's fingertips, and she shook her head. "No, it won't work. She's too far, and she doesn't have any way to track him. Even if we described the car, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack in this city."

"Come on! You're a super hacker, can't you do something? Like, I don't know…" Sayaka thought hard "Force a traffic light to stay red or something?"

"If I had my computer, yes, but it would take some time… more than we have. This phone just isn't powerful enough to handle something like that, and I've never tried to do that before so I don't know how." She also couldn't be as discreet when using her phone to hack, and therefore it would put a bigger risk on herself, but she didn't bring that part up.

"AH! Well, there has to be something we can do!" Sayaka said again, feeling the panic setting in on herself more and more.

"Leave town." Leiko stated flatly. "That was my plan." Then, when both Sayaka and Madoka shot her a disgusted look, Leiko rolled her eyes and continued. "Look, I don't have any ideas. I wish I did, but I don't. The plan is probably a bust, and they are going to start squeezing Homura for information any day now. Even in the best case scenario, they now know that Madoka is involved in this thing, so there's nothing we can do!"

"You don't know that!" Sayaka shouted at her. "If Kyoko got the GriefSeed to Homura then there's still a chance!"

"Even so, it's all outside of our control. If you want, I can help you two with getting new identities and running away. I'll do that for Mami too."

"That's it? We're suppose to just run away?" Sayaka shouted again, getting riled up all over again.

"No, not ' _that's it'._ Do you have any idea how rare of an opportunity I'm offering is? Or how much work it would be? It's not something to say 'that's it!' to."

Sayaka stomped towards her, ready to start the confrontation all over again. But, Madoka stepped in. "Sayaka wait!" Madoka said, getting between them. "She can't do anything else, she's just… just…" Madoka briefly searched for the right way to put it, but ended up giving up and saying, "Listen, fighting just won't help right now!"

Sayaka gritted her teeth and turned her head away. "I know! But I can't stand feeling so helpless!"

"M-maybe if we called him?" Madoka said, bowing her head and feeling like it was a stupid suggestion, but it's all she could come up with.

"Call who?" Leiko asked, impatiently. "The guy who just broke into your house? And say what exactly? ' _Pretty please, don't tell the other scientists what you've found?'"_

Madoka's face scrunched up as she leaned forward and yelled: "At least I'm trying to think of something! Stupid!"

 _So_ , Sayaka thought, _MADoka hasn't completely retired for the evening afterall_. Madoka's suggestion did give her an idea, though. "Hey wait, maybe she's on to something. I'm thinking… what if we like, threatened him or something?"

Leiko opened her mouth, probably predisposed to explaining how idiotic she thought the plan was, but then she closed her mouth and thought about it.

"Come on, it's all we've got." Sayaka continued "And it's not like it'll hurt anything, we are already screwed anyway…"

"Alright." Leiko finally said, "Let's do it, as you said, I suppose it's all we've got." Then, those rainbow colored sparks emitted from her finger tips, and she magic-dialed Kaiji's number.

* * *

Kyoko entered Dr. Endou's office with a harsh look on her face. "Dr. Sakura, what can I help you with?" He asked, pleasantly.

"Homura. Just what did you do to her?"

Endou's lips curved down into a frown, putting on his more typical stoney face. "I told you, I suspected she might try putting on an act. I don't know what exactly she hopes to gain, but-"

"Bullshit!" Kyoko shouted "She was clearly high as a damn kite!"

Endou set his pen down and leaned forward "I suggest you watch your tone, Dr. Sakura, and take a seat."

"You can't tell me she was just faking it!" Kyoko said, still with a raised tone, but trying to calm herself down somewhat. "Her pupils were dilated, and her vision was out of focus. The best actor in the world wouldn't have been able to pull that off! I'm a psychologist, did you really suspect that I wouldn't know the difference?"

Endou stared back at her for what felt like a long moment, each had their eye contact locked on the other. Finally, he said, "When you started this job, I told you that I have the final say in Subject One's treatment. Yes, I drugged her, I did so because she is dangerous, and the drug we used is meant to make her more docile. So she doesn't end up hurting anyone again."

"Then why would you lie to me about it? And you put it in her food didn't you? What if I accidentally ended up taking the drug while I was in there? Did you think about that?"

"My plan is to introduce Homura to the drug slowly, and get her used to it. I didn't want to risk you flat out telling her that her supplies had indeed been altered. As for you accidentally taking the drug, I know everything that had been altered, and I was watching the whole time. I would have stopped you before you ended up taking it."

Kyoko shook her head in disgust. "Homura isn't stupid, Dr. Endou, she knows what you are doing!"

"Perhaps, but give her a few more days and it won't matter any more. She'll believe anything we tell her, and she will do anything we tell her to do. Even more so, she might thank us for the drug, as I imagine it is an improvement to her normal mental state. In a few more days, all her negative emotions will just melt away."

Kyoko's eyes widened, she could seriously jump across the table and choke this man right now. How he said it so casually, and worse than that, the thought seemed to amuse him… he was _evil_. "Don't you realize how wrong that is? That's just downright cruel!"

"We tried treating her humanly, but that didn't get us very far. Subject One is just that, a _test subject_ , and perhaps in the future, something _more_. What matters here is results, and I'm confident this approach will give us the best results."

"She is a human being!" Kyoko yelled "She's a fourteen year old girl! What gives you the right to-"

"I told you to watch your tone!" Endou stood up from his seat. So far, Kyoko had only seen him sitting down, and didn't realize just how large of a man he was. His height combined with his thick boxy build made him look like a giant. Even with Kyoko's slightly increased height from her Kay Sakura persona, he still towered over her. "Don't overestimate your place here, Dr. Sakura. You have no authority in these matters."

"Then why am I even here? You didn't even give me a chance to work with her! There hasn't been enough time yet for me to make a real difference, and then you jump right to drugging her when the results are not instant?"

"Your job is to document your thoughts on her mental state. Nothing more. You are here to work for us, you are not here to work for the test subject. I thought you understood that."

"You may be my employer, but Homura is my patient. My dedication always goes first and foremost to my patients, I wouldn't be worth hiring in the first place if that were not the case." They stood with their eyes locked, but even the heartful Kyoko couldn't match his stony gaze for very long. After a moment, she glanced back to his desk, and caught sight of the family picture she had noticed on her first day here.

There was a slightly younger Dr. Endou in the photo, with his wife and daughter standing in front of him, each stood at least a foot lower than him. Kyoko focused on his daughter for a moment. She looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old in the photo, she was likely a bit older now since her father was younger in the photo as well. She had black, shoulder length hair with green highlights. Her smile was bright and full of innocence. Her clothing was formal, but judging from the green highlights, that kind of attire was likely just for the picture. Kyoko wondered if she knew what kind of man her father was.

"How would you feel if it was your daughter in there? If your daughter just disappeared one day out of the blue? Homura had friends! She had a-"

Dr. Endou's hand slammed down on top of the desk hard enough it caused the picture to fall over, and the angry expression that came over his face was enough to make Kyoko take a step back. "If you came here to speak in rhetorics, I'll ask that you don't waste my time." His voice was even more slow and monotone than normal. After a moment without a response, he eventually sighed and looked at the picture which had fallen over. He picked it up, and stared at it, the anger dissolving from his face into something unexpectedly emotional. After a moment of looking at the picture, he set it back down in it's place, and retook his seat.

The look that was on his face; Kyoko use to know that kind of expression very well, because she used to see it every time she looked in the mirror.

Carefully, Kyoko said, "You lost her. Didn't you?"

"Subject One is your patient, Dr. Sakura. Are we finished here?"

"No. We are not finished." Kyoko turned around, and opened the door. Before leaving, with her hand still on the doorknob, she said one more thing. "I'm going to do everything in my power to protect Homura from you." And with that, she left.

In the hallway, the guard asked "All done?" Kyoko just nodded, and walked past him.

Kyoko could almost sympathize with him, it wasn't too long ago that she wasn't much different. There was a key difference between the two of them, though. She never actually _enjoyed_ hurting people. For that, this man could never be forgiven.

 _Good luck, Homura._ She thought.

Kyoko got the GriefSeed to Homura, the plan was a success. Now the rest was up to her.

* * *

Kaiji wasted no time getting back to his car and out of the neighborhood. He felt bad about how things had just gone down, but he supposed he didn't have a choice. The submission technique didn't actually hurt Madoka's father, it may have given him some temporary pain but after a few minutes there likely wouldn't even be a mark there any more.

Now, he was at a crossroad. The obvious choice would be to start making some phone calls right now, and stop Dr. Kay Sakura from leaving the lab. He glanced over at his phone, which was on the passenger seat, and considered this option. He didn't want to do it like that, not yet. Before anything else, he wanted to speak with Kay in person, so he would have a better idea of what the right decision would be.

Then, his phone started ringing. He glanced over to it briefly before putting his eyes back on the road, then took a double take when he noticed something. The screen of the phone had changed; there was normally a dialog box which stated an incoming call and the number, but now, it was sparkling with all different colors of the rainbow. What's more, he noticed tiny strings of static electricity emitting from it.

He tried to keep his eyes on the road ahead of him, but kept glancing over to the phone, not sure if he could believe what he was seeing. He heard a loud honk as a car zoomed by him, the driver making an obscene gesture as he passed. Kaiji didn't pay that much mind, but it did remind him he was driving. The ringing stopped, and he was lost in thought for a moment.

Was that some kind of glitch with his phone? He had never seen anything like that before… The rainbow color was familiar, though. It was the same light that would surround Homura's body before the ribbons started appearing and transforming her clothing.

The phone started ringing again. Kaiji found a clear spot on the shoulder and quickly pulled over, and then just stared at the phone. The tiny strings of static, which were dancing on its surface, made him hesitant to grab onto it. Then, the light got brighter, and he flinched as the static shot forth from the phone and into his car stereo. His eyes were wide as he looked at the stereo display and saw the volume turn itself up.

" _So, you're ignoring our calls now. That's not very polite, Dr. Kaiji."_

"What the…" He felt as though he should be past getting surprised by anything, but he was still at a loss for words.

"Speak, _doctor_ , we will be able to hear you."

"What? Who is this? Are you…" He thought back to the voice which had guided him to uncovering Kyoko Sakura. He still didn't know exactly how Kay was related, but he had some theories, some of which sounded downright insane. The one thing he knew for sure though, is Kay is not who she said she was. Or at the very least, she had some deep ulterior motives for her interest in Subject One.

"It doesn't matter who we are, we are friends of Homura, let's just leave it at that. I'll get right to the point. We know that you have not contacted anyone about your recent discovery. That's good, and I suggest you keep it that way. Otherwise, let's just say little Tomoko might experience a very unfortunate accident in the near future."

When Kaiji heard his son's name, his heart jumped and adrenalin went coursing through his veins. "My son? Are you threatening me!"

"Looks like he is at your brothers house right now, playing with little Yuki. It's unfortunate Detective Ishida is out on patrol… somewhere downtown, it looks like. Well, it's unfortunate for you and your family anyway, not so much for us because that will just make things that much easier."

Kaiji took a deep breath. He knew what she was doing, trying to get under his skin, and keep him from thinking clearly. In a quick moment of clarity, he decided he wouldn't play into their game. "Who is this? Is it Madoka? No, I'd guess her voice sounds a bit different." He paused, and was happy to hear a moment of silence, which meant they weren't as in control as they would like him to believe. "Or, is this Leiko? That's what Madoka called you right? You're the white haired girl that stormed into the house."

"Dr. Kaiji, I would suggest-"

"That makes sense, you somehow knew where I was, and you seem to know where my family members are, so thats a solid connection. So, how does it work? That color is the same I've seen from Homura, but as far as we know we have never seen her do anything like this before."

"My associate is outside your brother's house right now. She is watching little Tomoko and Yuki playing in the backyard. Dr. Kaiji, you better stop talking and start listening, or you will force me to make good on my threats."

Kaiji glanced at his wrist watch: 5:43. "Is that right?" Kaiji said, calmly. "Why don't you cut the bullshit and just tell me what you want?"

"Do you understand what I'm saying here? I'm going to assume that the stress of the situation doesn't have you thinking clearly. You at least were intelligent enough to stop moving toward the lab, so I'll give you a chance."

"Teiai Adventure Team." He stated the words very clearly. "Have you ever heard of it? Tomoko is practically addicted to it, I don't think he has missed a single episode in the last three months. It's a kids show, but I watched a few episodes with him and I actually found it rather amusing myself. Yuki seems to like it as well, although it's more geared towards a male audience, but she always has been a bit of a tomboy."

"Don't test me, doctor."

"Want to take a guess what time the show starts? Five-Thirty. If I know my son, and my niece, there is no way they are in the backyard right now. Therefore, I'm guessing your ' _associate_ ' that's outside of my brothers house was a bluff… wasn't it?" Silence. "As I thought. Now I'll say it again, cut the bullshit, and if you threaten my family one more time I'm ending this call."

"You can't end the call, and even if you could, that would be very unwise, _doctor_."

"I'll throw the phone out of the damn window if I have to! That's strike two. If you threaten me or try to intimidate me one more time we are done here."

He listened closely, and could hear whispering on the other side of the line. There was some shuffling around, and then a new voice spoke to him. "H-hello? Um, hi… Mr. Kaiji?" This new voice sounded rather nervous.

"This is Madoka I take it." Kaiji said. No answer. "If it is Madoka, first I'll apologize for what happened earlier. You don't have to forgive me, but I just want you to know my actions were based on a sense of duty, and even so, I do feel terrible about it. I was careful not to actually hurt your father, if that's any consolation."

"I… I don't think I can say it's ok. Especially since you are one of the people who… um… k-kidnapped Homura. Um… But I am sorry we threatened your family…"

"It's understandable, but please tell me honestly. It was just a threat, right?"

There was some whispering and then. "Yes, it was just a threat."

"I thought as much, but I just had to be sure. Thank you."

"W-we're not bad people. Honest! B-but…" Her voice broke away, and Kaiji heard a sound that he thought was crying.

"Madoka?" He asked. "Are you still there?"

"Please!" She shouted out with a cracked voice. "Homura is a dear friend of mine, and I'm so scared for her! Y-you have a child right? How would you feel if your son disappeared one night? Or your wife, or someone else who you loved! We… we just want our friend back!"

Kaiji wondered if this Madoka was the girlfriend who Homura had mentioned to Kay. Considering how emotional she seemed right now, Kaiji thought that was probably the case, and it made him feel even more guilty about the situation.

"Believe it or not, I have spent quite some time thinking about those things. That's what makes this so difficult. I don't think Homura deserve the things that are happening to her, but you have to understand this from our perspective. Someone with her abilities can't just be ignored. For what it's worth, we at least have been trying to keep her comfortable while we have her."

"That's a lie!" Madoka shouted. "You've been doing horrible things to her! You electrocute her! Gas her! You force her to do your tests!"

"I'll admit there have been some unfortunate turns of events, but-"

"And you are starting to use drugs on her… That's just horrible! Who knows what kind of irreparable harm that can do to her! So don't you dare act like all of this is ok!"

"Drugs?" Kaiji asked. "No, there may have been some talk about that but we haven't actually done anything like that." Where would she even have gotten that idea from? It couldn't have been Kay, because she didn't even know about the drug… or at least she shouldn't. Then Kaiji remembered Endou's theory that they had been getting hacked, and this Leiko character's power seemed to coincide with that theory.

"Why are you lying!" Madoka shouted "We know everything you have done to her! You snuck it into her food to trick her into taking it!"

Endou. Kaiji realized it must have been Endou. That bastard knew Kaiji was against it, so he waited until he had a couple of days off to make his move. "I wasn't aware of that." Kaiji said, flatly. "But I do not doubt what you are saying. Listen, I'm against a lot of things regarding the way Homura has been treated, and I want things to be better for her. I really do."

He sighed and massaged his temples. _What am I doing?_ He thought, _it's almost as if I'm… what? On their side?_

He was excited about the Subject One assignment because he saw it as a chance to be involved in groundbreaking research. Research that could change the world and benefit the human race. But Homura was still a human being, and she didn't deserve to have her life taken away from her. If only there was a compromise that could be reached. Something that gave her freedom, but still allowed them to do their research. Of course, if she was allowed to leave the lab, there's a chance she would disappear and never be seen again. That's why she had to be obtained forcefully in the first place; when there was still the element of surprise.

"I'm going to try to help her." Kaiji finally said, "I'm sorry, but at this point we cannot provide her with the luxury of freedom. Maybe one day, she will be able to return to her life, but for now we still need her. Until then, I'm going to try to make things as comfortable for her as I can. That is the best I can do."

"You don't sound like a bad person." Madoka said with a small voice. "But, how can you think that's alright? How can you be ok with doing that to someone?"

"I'm not, but it's the best I can do." He looked at his wrist watch. Kay Sakura, if that was even her real name, wouldn't be in the lab much longer. Therefore, he needed to end this call and get there. He hadn't fully decided how he would proceed yet. Dr. Endou was a huge problem for him, maybe more than the emergence of these other girls, but he knew if Kay left today it would likely be the last time any of them saw her. "I have to go now. I'm sorry, but Kay Sakura has committed a high class fraud, and I have to stop her."

"No! Wait!" Madoka shouted "Kay just wants to help Homura, just like you claimed." There was a shuffling noise "Um, here, someone else wants to talk to you."

The phone shuffled around some more and a new voice picked up. "Dr. Kaiji." It said, flatly.

"And who is this?"

"For now, you can just call me Saki. I'm… well, I'm sure you've figured it out so there's no harm in saying it. I'm like Homura and Leiko, I can use magic too." Magic? So that was their term for their powers. Kaiji supposed it was as good a word for it as any. "I just want to make something clear. You will never catch any of us. We will know if anyone is coming after us, and we have the ability to completely erase ourselves and just disappear. You only captured Homura because she wasn't expecting it. That is something that will never happen again.

"Also, I want you to realize Madoka is not one of us. She is just an ordinary girl. There is absolutely no point in sending anyone after her. If you don't believe me, and try to capture her anyway, she is just going to disappear. As will I, or Leiko if we think we are in danger. As for Kay…" 'Saki' suddenly became silent as she gathered her thoughts. "Kay only wants to help Homura. I can't tell you why, but if it were not for Kay's presence, your test subject would already be gone.

"Kay is willing to risk her own life for the lives of her friends. That's just the kind of person she is… She wants to save Homura, just as she saved me."

Kaiji waited a moment, then asked. "Who is she? And… how is she related to Kyoko Sakura?"

"I don't know if I should answer that." Saki responded. Then after a moment she said, "Kaiji, you said if we threatened you again, you would end the call. Well, don't take what I'm about to say as a threat, take it as a promise of future events." Her voice had grown dark, and it lowered to a whisper. Kaiji got the impression that whatever she was saying to him, she was hiding from her other two companions. "I'm not like Madoka, I'm not like Leiko, I'm not like Homura, and I'm not like Kay. I'm a murderer. There were two unexplainable deaths on a train a month ago, their bodies were torn apart as if some kind of acid had eaten them from the inside out. No known weapon could have done that, you can ask your brother about it, I'm sure he is at least aware of the case.

Those two men were in their late twenties, they looked like a couple of young business men, and they were way too full of themselves. They were really shitty human beings, I mean like, total scum, but they didn't deserve to die. I murdered them in cold blood, because I was depressed, and I thought it would make me feel better. I got to admit, it kind of worked a little bit, even though I may hate myself for it now."

"Why are you telling me this?" Kaiji asked.

"Who knows what other horrible things I might have done. I really wasn't myself back then, you see. Kay helped me, though. She was the only person who was able to bring me back to my senses. She helped me, the way she is trying to help Homura now. I'm telling you this, Kaiji, because if anything happens to Kay… I don't really know what I might end up doing."

"So what you are saying, is if something happens to Kay, you will seek vengeance on me."

"I'm saying I don't know what I'll do. Did you believe me when I said we can just disappear without a trace if we need to? Well, do you really want a person like that with a vendetta against you? If you can't find me, how will you ever be able to stop me? You've been studying Homura for the last three weeks, so you should understand what we are capable of."

"When you said if it were not for Kay, we already would have lost our test subject. What did you mean by that?"

"Magic is a finite resource, and you are depriving her of it, Dr. Kaiji. Kay has been providing her with a reserve." Kaiji thought back to that first meeting, when Dr. Endou was convinced Kay had slipped something to Homura. Kaiji had thought he was being crazy, because at the time it did seem crazy. At the time, it seemed impossible that Kay could have had a prior relationship with Homura, and therefore it was ridiculous to think she would try and smuggle something in for her. Kaiji now knew for a fact Kay was deeply involved with these people, and it no longer seemed too crazy. How could Dr. Endou have caught on to these things, though? Kaiji knew he was a highly intelligent person, but to reach those kinds of conclusions correctly with so little to go on… Just who was he?

"The point is, turning Kay in will do you no good. If her meetings with Homura were to stop, you will only end up killing Homura as well… and none of us want that."

Kaiji looked at his watch once again, he was running short on time and needed to get to the lab. He had some things to think about, but he wasn't the type to allow decisions to be made for him, and therefore he needed to get to the lab before Kay left. He wanted to meet with her, and confront her on some of the things he learned. Then, he would decide. "I have to go now. Will you end the call please? Or will I have to throw my phone out the window after all?"

"Don't make the wrong decision, doctor." Saki said. "We'll be in touch." and with that, the call ended, the volume went back down on the radio, and the rainbow light disappeared, returning his phone completely to normal. Kaiji picked the phone up and scrolled through a few of the screens, and saw that it was indeed just as it had been before, or it at least looked that way. He set the phone down, put his car into drive, and pulled back onto the highway, heading toward the lab.

* * *

"What did you say to him?" Leiko asked, snatching her phone back from Sayaka.

Sayaka just shrugged. "Maybe one day I'll give you some tips on how to properly threaten somebody. Your attempt was pretty bad, I'm surprised I was able to make him take me seriously after that pathetic display." Sayaka sighed, and sat down on the curb, combing her fingers into her hair as she stared at the ground. Leiko seemed to have ignored the jab, and just went to poking around on her cellphone.

Madoka sat down next to Sayaka and put an arm around her shoulder. "Do you think it worked?"

Sayaka shook her head. "I don't know, but it's all I can do. We just need to hope for the best now."

"Madoka, I think you are in the most immediate danger out of the three of us." Leiko said, "Therefore, I will set up your escape route first. For now, you can continue with your life normally, but make sure you always have your cell phone nearby, and I mean ALWAYS. When they come, they will come fast, and there won't be much time to waste. But, if you follow my directions, I'll be able to get you out of the city and on to a new life."

"How did things end up this way?" Madoka asked seemingly more to herself than to either of them. "First Homura, and now Kyoko is in danger too…"

Sayaka tensed up at those words, and Madoka instantly felt bad about it, thinking maybe she should be more positive. "It's alright." Sayaka said, seeming to have read the thought. Then she stood up, releasing herself from Madoka's embrace. "Kyoko is one of the toughest people I know, Homura too. If anyone can get out of this, they can." She turned toward Leiko. "Leiko, thanks for everything, and I'm sorry about before, I had the wrong idea about you."

Leiko just stared at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You didn't have to show up here, and you didn't have to put yourself at risk the way you did, but you did anyway. You really showed your true colors today, and I'll never forget it."

Leiko adjusted her glasses in her classic disinterested expression. "Don't get the wrong idea. What happens to the rest of you directly impacts my own security. I'm just…"

"' _Looking out for myself_ '," Sayaka interjected, "Yeah, yeah, I get it." Then she smiled "I'm not sure if I actually believe that though… Anyway, your offer to make us disappear, I'm going to have to turn it down."

"Sayaka?" Madoka asked.

"Madoka, you should take it. You still have a family, one that loves you very much. Besides, it's what Homura would want. With me it's different, my parents barely have time for me. They kind of care about me, but in the end they really don't. What they care more about is their own image and how I reflect on them, more than they ever actually cared about me as a person. Kyoko is all I really have, plus she saved my life. Therefore, I'll gladly give my own life to try and save hers."

"Sayaka what are talking about!" Madoka said with a raised voice as she stood up. "How can you talk like that? What's gotten into you?"

"Whatever." Leiko said, "It's less work for me if that's really the route you want to take, but the offer still stands if you change your mind. I really don't get what you think your going to be able to do though."

Madoka ignored Leiko and continued, "Do you think that's what Kyoko would want either? She would never ask you to sacrifice yourself for her!"

"Of course she wouldn't, nor would I ever ask that of her. If it _was_ me, it wouldn't matter how much I told her not to, nothing would be able to stop her." Sayaka sighed. "Look, don't take me too seriously right now, I'm just thinking out loud. Like I said, if anyone can get out of this, they can. I'm going to try to look at this with the glass half full for now." She put on a smile. "I bet by this time tomorrow all six of us will be sitting at Mami's drinking tea together again."

* * *

Kyoko left Dr. Endou's office, and walked right past the guard, a deep frown on her face. The guard cleared his throat and asked, "Everything alright, Miss. Sakura?"

"Dr. Sakura." She corrected him, with a dry tone of voice, not really sure why she did that but it was effective for the purpose of staying in character.

"Yes, sorry doctor."

She ended up doing more of the leading this time, but had to stop and wait for him to give his cue for the door to open. She was pissed about what they had been doing to her friend before, but after seeing Homura in the state she was in, and then speaking with that monster who was in charge of all of this, she felt a fire swelling up inside of her. At least the plan had gone rather flawlessly so far. She got the GriefSeed to Homura, and soon she would be out of here herself. If they really did have any suspicions of her, she never would have made it this far in the first place. Although, Dr. Endou seemed to be regarding her somewhat suspiciously, but there was no use worrying about that now.

Soon, she would be gone, and soon after that Homura would be able to free herself as well. Kyoko at least prayed that it would work. If it didn't… well, she didn't want to even think about that. She supposed she would have to fall black on plan A: break in and kick some ass. Though, she didn't know how that would work with all these damn metal doors to contend with.

They stood in front of another metal door, and when it hissed and slid open, there was someone waiting on the other side. It was a tall man with glasses, shaggy brown hair, and a trench coat. "Dr. Sakura." He said, walking toward her.

"Yes?" She asked, taking note of something in his body language and eyeing him suspiciously. Her escort stood at attention and gave the man a solute. So apparently, this guy was pretty important.

He looked over to the guard and said. "Could you give us a moment alone?"

"My orders were to stay with her, sir." The guard said.

He rubbed the corners of his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, acting as though he were really annoyed. "Just go to the other end of the hall, would you? We'll be right here."

The guard looked as if he wanted to complain, but seeing the irritated look on the face of someone he saw to be his main employer stopped whatever that complaint may have been, and obeyed.

After the guard left, the man didn't say anything. He was just giving her an odd look, narrow eyes, his face full of accusations. It made Kyoko feel nervous, but she was sure to hide this. She cleared her throat and spoke with a somewhat dry tone to her voice. "I'm sorry…And you are?"

"Dr. Kaiji." He said, putting on a smile and holding out his hand, although he still held that interrogative posture. "I'm the secondary lead researcher for Subject One. I'm glad to finally get the chance to meet you in person. You may not have known this, but I was one of the supporters for bringing you in." So, he was one of them, this man was just like Endou. He was one of the people who had been tormenting her friend.

Kaiji frowned slightly when she didn't accept his handshake, but he maintained his steady eye contact. It was _really_ starting to bother her.

"Well, I thank you for that." She said kindly enough, but then her voice got a bit darker. "Sorry if I'm not in the mood for pleasantries today. I'm just a bit disillusioned with the general staff assigned to _Homura_ at the moment."

"I don't blame you." Kaiji said. "You do seem rather dedicated to her, I'm glad she has you though. It's almost like you bring in a certain kind of _magic_ which she desperately needs." The emphasis he put on the word 'magic' made Kyoko's heart jump. Part of her wanted to believe it was just an odd choice of words, but suddenly the look he had been giving her made sense. He knew something.

"I'm sorry, did you want something?" She said carefully, glancing at the guard down the hall who wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying.

He was quiet, and his eyes shifted away for just a moment, it seemed as though he was considering something. Kyoko glanced down the hallway, that last metal door would lead to the elevator, but she would have no way of getting to it if this man tried to stop her. Sure, she could take him out along with the guard, no problem. Except that damn door would stay shut. If he had figured her out, though, what was stopping him? Why was he even standing here talking to her?

She mentally felt for her SoulGem's power.

She had only recently gotten her wish magic back; the type of magic which allowed her to use enchantments. It was thanks to Sayaka, Sayaka was the one who made her believe in her wish again and allowed her to use her power. Her wish was originally made to help her family, to protect them. When she ended up losing them as a direct result of that wish, she lost all faith she had in magic, and gave up on the idea of protecting anyone other than herself. It was like that for a long time, until she met Sayaka, and had someone to protect again.

She had learned a lot of tricks with it since then: multiplying herself, changing her appearance, manipulating the appearance of other things… there was one other way it could be used which she hadn't had much practise with yet, but it was the only thing she had which could help her out of this situation. It was the power which she had inadvertently inherited from her father. The power of suggestion.

"Homura can't leave." Kaiji said, locking eye contact with her once again. It was as if he had suddenly come to a conclusion on a hard thought over decision. There was some doubt there, however, that was good. Her own powers of suggestion were rather weak, especially when compared to her father who could convince someone that up was down, and the sky was actually green simply by saying it. She could give nudges, though, and if someone was already partially going in the direction she wanted, she thought she might be able to push him that way further.

"She's being drugged." Kyoko said softly, pulling magic from her gem, and letting a warm smile fall over her face as she looked back at Kaiji. His own eyes suddenly softened, where before he was looking at her with a certain level of intensity. His sight was now transfixed on her in a different sort of way, as if he couldn't look away. "It's going to change her, perhaps permanently, destroying the person she once was. There is no worse form of imprisonment than that."

"I…" Kaiji blinked, and took a step back. He shook his head, trying to force himself out of the hypnosis. Kyoko lifted a hand and let her fingers brush the side of his cheek very lightly, and he became transfixed again. "I didn't know about that." He said, in a slow dull tone. "Really, I never wanted it… it's not my fault, none of this is what I…" He looked like he wanted to back away again, so Kyoko increased the pull from her SoulGem. "I... thought…"

"Homura doesn't deserve the things that are happening to her, there's no justifying it, you know this is wrong."

Suddenly, a series of images flashed through her mind, and unbidden memories sprung forth. A dark room, empty bottles of sake, and her father's voice, echoing in her head. ' _You crush the faith of the people and lead them astray. What should I call you if not a witch?_ '

Grimacing, Kyoko put a hand to her temple and forced those memories out of her mind, but the damage was already done.

"I…" Kaiji blinked, and shook his head, fighting off her enchantment. "Stop it." he said distantly, then shook his head more violently and repeated the word with more authority. "Stop!" He took a few steps back, and the distant look in his eyes completely disappeared. He glanced behind himself, to the guard who was down the hall. Then looked back to Kyoko.

' _Damn it! Lost him!'_ Kyoko thought, but hoping, maybe it was enough.

"Who are you?" He asked, his eyes narrowing, " _What_ are you?" Kyoko frowned, and nodded. Her feet started moving. Kaiji flinched as she got closer, but relaxed when she ended up just walking right past him. "Wait!" He said, turning to follow her. The guard who had been staring ahead in a perfectly uniform posture now looked back in their direction, curiously.

"I just want what's best for Homura. That is all I ever wanted." She said, walking away, not looking at him.

Kaiji blinked, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but it looked as though Kay Sakura had suddenly gotten shorter. Then, after a few more steps she stopped, and turned, and Kaiji's eye grew wide at what he saw.

A fifteen year old girl looked back at him. She still had Kay Sakura's face, though less mature, but she was not Kay Sakura anymore. She was now Kyoko Sakura, the girl who Kaiji had video of stealing from a convenience store. The white lab coat she was wearing suddenly seemed too big for her, its sleeves hanging down to her fingertips, its ends coming close to dragging on the floor. Even the glasses suddenly seemed too large, like they wanted to fall right off her face. Kaiji looked over to the guard to verify that he wasn't the only one seeing this, but it quickly became clear that was indeed the case. The guard didn't seem to take any notice of the fact that Kay Sakura had just changed.

"I don't know what happens now, doctor." Kyoko Sakura said to him, even her voice seeming to have changed, "Maybe I walk out this door, maybe…" her eyes glanced downward, in a somewhat pitiable fashion. "Maybe not…" She sighed and looked back up. "You're not like him, though. I can see it in you, you're not evil, you know this is wrong. Well, there's nothing else I can say… I'm at your mercy." Then, she turned and started walking toward the guard.

"Ready?" The guard asked as she approached him.

"Yes… ready." She said, her voice was low, the distress was clear, but the guard didn't seem to notice.

The guard did notice Kaiji staring at the two of them, and asked. "Everything alright, sir?"

Kyoko turned her head to look at him, her eyes pleading. He could stop her right now. She was like Homura, she could be another test subject. More than that, who knows what dangers she might impose to them if she was allowed to go free? All of that aside, even, it would be his duty to stop her. All he had to do was say the words, and Kyoko, or Kay, whatever her name was, would never leave this place again.

"Everything's fine." Kaiji finally said, after a long pause. "Kay, I'd like to speak with you more later, when you have the time."

Kyoko smiled and nodded. "I'll contact you. And, if there's anything you can do about the drugging situation… I don't know what they have her on, but it's not good."

Kaiji nodded "I'll see what I can do."

"Until next time?"

"Until next time." Kaiji agreed. Then, the door slid open, closing again a few moments later with Kyoko safely on the other side.

* * *

After letting Kyoko go free, Kaiji first went to the computer lab. Kyoko and her other magic friends claimed that Homura had been dosed with drugs. Kaiji didn't have any reason to doubt them, and it was perfectly in Dr. Endou's personality to do something like that. He just needed to figure out if it actually was Galazadrine Dr. Endou used on her. Kaiji had helped develop the drug, long before he even knew of Homura's existence, so he was well aware of its effects and would be able to tell if that's what she was on. If that was indeed the case, he would start pushing to have Dr. Endou removed from the team, on the grounds that he had endangered the Test Subject by dosing her with something that did not have significant human testing.

He got to the computer room, which was almost always empty this time of day, and sat towards the back corner of the room. He logged onto the security channel, which had no external connections, and logged into his account which had special privileges and full access to just about everything related to Subject One.

He quickly read through some of the log notes and saw one from yesterday afternoon which mentioned Subject One vomiting. He opened the video for that time. There were no cameras in the bathroom, but the door was open and through the audio he could hear the sounds of Homura gagging. When she came out of the bathroom again, she stood in front of the camera over the front door, and just swayed around on her feet and stared at it, as white as a ghost, and with a dazed expression on her face.

" _Yoooouuuu."_ She said, waving a finger at the camera. " _You did something! You drugged my foooood!"_

Kaiji cringed and shook his head as he watched. It was Galazadrine alright. Endou was the lead researcher on the Subject One project, and even despite the refusal of other members of the organization, he technically did have the authority to make the decision to use the drug if he felt it would be safer. Still, Kaiji couldn't accept it, there wasn't significant human testing done with the drug yet, so there was a chance it could have some side effects they didn't know about. To use it on Homura, who is an invaluable and irreplaceable test subject, was poor judgement. He would use this reasoning in his case against Endou, but he was actually against it for far greater reasons than just that.

He looked through the logs some more. Whenever someone spoke to Homura on the intercom the time was documented automatically in the computer system. He opened the video footage to Endou talking to her the next day.

He watched as a more stable Homura confronted Endou about the drugging, which Endou denied.

As Kaiji watched more and more, he felt his anger rising.

Endou threatened her with the gas, something Kaiji had asked him not to do anymore. Then, the clincher was when Homura finally started eating, Dr. Endou seemed to be messing around with her, playing mind games, taunting her.

It was bad enough she was forced to stay here. Anyway you looked at it, she was an innocent person who was being imprisoned. To be in that predicament, and to constantly be at someone's mercy as Homura was, would have negative psychological effects on anyone. Then, to be taunted by your captors, and forced to see just how powerless you truly were (which is exactly what Endou was doing to her), was truly a cruel thing.

A month ago when the project started, Kaiji hoped to be able to make things up to her by at least keeping her comfortable, and treating her respectfully. He wanted her to understand things from their side, and hoped for her to work with them willingly, with mutual respect. Somehow, things had gone horribly wrong, though, and it was all Dr. Endou's fault. Kaiji decided he would put an end to it, though. He closed out of the security program, and started working on some emails. Once all that was done, he would go visit Dr. Endou in his office.

* * *

"Dr. Kaiji." Endou said, looking up from a stack of papers as Kaiji entered his office. "I thought you wouldn't be coming in today."

"I wasn't, but I decided to check in on Homura's latest appointment with the psychologist. I'm glad I did too, because I got the opportunity to speak with Kay in the hallway."

Endou set his pen down, and folded his hands to give Kaiji his full attention. He could tell Kaiji had a lot more to say.

"It's Galazadrine isn't it?" Kaiji asked. "You decided to just go ahead and dose her secretly. No, worse than that, you drugged her food. How is she ever suppose to trust us now?"

"Dr. Kaiji." Endou's voice was calm and maintained. "You should know the drug well enough to realize that trust will be a non-issue once it has had time to fully take effect. Besides, it would have been impossible to get her to take it by any other means, other than putting her to sleep first. She already has very little trust in us, to the point that she would refuse taking simple vitamin supplements. This is another reason for my decision to start with the Galazadrine doses. She is already suffering from paranoia, and considering her powers, wouldn't it be unsafe for our employees if she starts acting irrationally? As she is normally, she is unpredictable, and I do not care for unpredictable."

Kaiji listened patiently, although he could feel his blood boiling. He took a deep breath and responded with a controlled tone. "I also took the time to go through the logs from the last few days. First, I'll point out that you did not document your plans to start using Galazadrine. There is no information about the dosage levels, no observations or reports of any kind. That is entirely against protocol."

"I did document it." Endou said. "You didn't check her supply manifest. If you did, you would clearly see which items were altered, and with exactly how many milligrams."

"That's even worse!" Kaiji said, slightly raising his tone. "First of all, you know full well that Galazadrine hasn't had sufficient human testing. What if it turned out to be dangerous for her? What if it causes liver failure, or causes her body to stop producing white blood cells? What if it causes her to have a stroke?" Kaiji also didn't feel it was necessary to point at that if it was indeed on the supply manifest it was likely buried amongst everything else on the list, which would basically have been the same as not documenting it at all.

"There has never been anything to suggest any of those examples as being side effects of Galazadrine."

"We don't know, though, because it hasn't been tested on humans yet! The point is, anything could happen! Besides that, the way in which you delivered it to her, there is no way to control the dosage. What if she drank half that pitcher of iced tea, instead of just one glass? What were you thinking?"

Dr. Endou's eye's narrowed. "I was watching the entire time. If I was worried about an overdose I easily could have stopped her. Kaiji, I appreciate your input, but don't worry. I thought long and hard on this, and decided that this was the best course of action. Either this, or knocking her out with the gas and giving it to her while she was unconscious, and would you be any less upset with that approach?"

"I have been completely against Galazadrine from the very beginning, you know that. Is that why you waited untill I wouldn't be in the lab for a couple of days before making your move?"

"You are a moral person, I can respect that, but I think your morality sometimes affects your judgment. Despite that, I still wouldn't have anyone else working on this project with me. You are a brilliant researcher and I have more faith and trust in you than anyone else in our field." Endou's lips curved up into that forced smile of his. "You are a man who understands there are times when it is ok to break the rules, and to cross lines, yet you always hold onto your integrity. I didn't involve you in this decision simply so you wouldn't have to feel responsible for something I'm sure you would have viewed as an immoral act."

"Immoral. We are drugging a teenage girl! A girl who saved an entire city from a disaster which easily could have killed thousands. We are given a girl with those kinds of powers, and this is what happens to her?" Kaiji shook his head. "God help us all."

"It is an unfortunate circumstance for Homura, I understand that as well, but if we could learn about how her powers work, and find a way to reproduce it, just think of the possibilities! Yes, I understand the situation is _unfair_ for Homura, but it was necessary."

"No, it wasn't." replied Kaiji, his eyes turning hard. "Not only was she willing to open up to Dr. Sakura, to give her a chance that as far as she knew would only end in hurting her more, but she also spoke to me completely of her own free will and asked for forgiveness over her actions. This proves that she can be reasoned with, _if_ we show her the respect she deserves as a fellow human being. By drugging her like this, to not only trick her into it, but deliberately provoke her just to get a reaction, you have destroyed any chance we had of getting her to work with us, rather than against us." He stood up. "I'm sorry, Endou. I've already sent an email to our supervisor detailing your actions and how they have severely hurt our research. I expect that your contract with the Anomalous Research Lab will be terminated before the end of the week."

Dr. Endou's face dropped into a frown. "You think so? Kaiji, I'm afraid you are overestimating your level of authority."

"I have video of you outright taunting Homura when she tried to confront you about the drug. It'll be clear to anyone who watches it that you do not have her best interests in mind."

"There is reason behind everything I do, I would ask that you have some faith in me, but it seems you have already made up your mind."

Kaiji shook his head and went to leave the office. "I would like to, because for what it's worth, I did have respect for you. However, I can't stand idly by and watch Homura suffer needlessly any longer. We're done here."

Before Kaiji left, Endou said one more thing. "Subject One's power isn't the only thing that makes her dangerous, Dr. Kaiji. Maybe you will come to understand that eventually." Kaiji ignored this, and continued out the door. Endou stood and shouted after him. "We have to be able to control her!"

Kaiji stopped just outside the door. "Maybe, but is that control worth making an enemy out of her? I don't think so." And with that, Kaiji left.

"KAIJI!" Endou yelled, but he'd already closed the door.

* * *

Homura woke up later that night to a growling stomach. Somehow, the hunger didn't bother her. There was too much anxiety about what was to come to think about eating, if she even could trust the food enough to eat in the first place.

She sat up on her bed and massaged her temples. It was completely dark, all the lights in her apartment were turned off. That must mean it was past her scheduled bedtime. _Scheduled bedtime…_ She clicked her teeth, _those bastards_. She hated herself for letting that phrase enter her head, but at least it would all be ending soon.

She got up, and felt her legs wobble beneath herself. She had slept through some of the drugs effect, but it still had her head feeling a bit fuzzy. She walked to the door of her bedroom with careful steps, holding her hands in front of herself to keep from running into anything in the pitch black room. When she got out into the living room, she just stood there, glancing around at the black silhouettes, then focusing on a spot she knew a camera to be.

"Is anyone there?" She asked. Waited a moment, then asked again. "Hello?"

The intercom clicked on, it was the softer toned guy, Kaiji. "Yes Homura, I'm here. Do you need the lights on?"

"Yes… please…" She said, and a moment later she was shielding her eyes from the light which seemed blinding compared to the total darkness she was in a moment ago. Her ears suddenly rang with the sound of the fluorescent lighting.

"You'd slept through most of the day, so it'll be alright to keep the lights on for a while tonight." Kaiji said, "We can't let you stay up too late though, so you don't end up off schedule."

Homura sighed, and walked to the kitchen. She didn't hate this Kaiji guy as much as she did Endou (or, Dr. Mono), but statements like that still had a way of getting under her skin.

Now that the lights were on, Homura waved her hand infront of her face to further test her own sobriety. She reached the same conclusion she had earlier; it seemed to have passed through her system, but she was still a bit fuzzy. If she could wait another day, until she was at a hundred percent, she would. It was too much of a risk though. What if they gassed her and forced a fresh dose of the drug on her? What if they searched her room while she was testing and found the GriefSeed? Or, what if the GriefSeed hatched on its own when she wasn't ready for it? Even if she wasn't at her best, she had to do this now. She couldn't take those risks.

"Homura." Kaiji said after some silence.

"Hm?" Homura responded passively, as she pulled a jar of peanut butter out of the cabinet and brought it to the garbage disposal.

"I heard about what happened earlier. The fact that… well, some of our associates decided to…"

"Drug my food?" Homura asked, as she opened the disposal and dropped the full jar of peanut butter down. She crouched down and listened closely as it banged and clanged its way to the bottom. Then, she straightened her posture and pondered the sounds, trying to gauge how far of a drop it was.

"Yes, that is not something that was agreed on collectively. It was the actions of a few individuals, and it never should have happened. It was a mistake."

"Ok." Homura responded, dismissively. She then went into the fridge and started poking around. She ended up removing a bag of onions, and brought those over to the garbage disposal as well.

"Dr. Endou is in the process of being reassigned. He is going to be taken off of the project… I listened back on the way he was talking to you earlier today… Homura, that is not the kind of people we are, and I know there is no way I can apologise enough for it. But, things will be different from here on out."

"I see…" Homura said, with that same dismissive tone of voice. She held the bag of onions upside down, and let them drop into the disposal. Then she closed the drawer, and listened as they rolled and tumbled, banging all the way down to the bottom.

"Same with the collars a week ago. That was Dr. Endou's doing, and nothing like that will ever happen again. We don't want to be your enemies, Homura, and we want to treat you well while you are here."

Homura went to the silverware drawer and grabbed two fistfulls of forks, knives, and spoons, and brought them back to the disposal. She opened it, and dropped them down, and listened to them clink and clang all the way down to the bottom.

"Um… Homura?" Kaiji asked, confusion in his voice. "What are you doing?"

"Kaiji, how many people are in this building right now?" Homura asked. "Specifically, here is this underground area."

"Well… I'm sorry Homura, but that is classified information."

"I see…" Homura walked out of the kitchen and started heading for the bathroom. "How many people are watching me right now? Is it just you, or is it a team of people?"

"Well, I'll say I'm not the only one who has access to this. As for specific numbers, I don't think I can say…"

Homura was only in the bathroom for a moment, she came right back out and went to stand by the living room table. "If this building needed to be evacuated, how quickly do you think you could do it?"

"Homura?"

"How quickly? Dr. Kaiji? This is important."

"I… don't know specifically, but we do have evacuation procedures… We also have a protocol for how to transport you in such a situation, but honestly I don't know what could happen that would require something like that."

"Natural gas leaks?" Homura suggested. "You know the way gasoline smells when you get it from the gas station? The oil companies actually add that, as a safety precaution, so people will know if there was a spill nearby. Gas in its unaltered form is odorless."

"Yes… I'm aware of that. Homura, you don't have to worry about natural gas leaks, I assure you that was taken into account during construction of this building." A pause, and then "Are you feeling well?"

"Just fine, I was only trying to make conversation." Then, there was a flash of light and her Magical Girl attire began to appear around her body.

"Homura, what are you doing? Why did you transform?"

She looked up at the camera, now fully transformed. Her voice had been somewhat playful before, but it now became dark. "I had another vision, Dr. Kaiji."

"A vision?" He asked, "Like when you predicted the storm?"

Her lips moved up and spread a sardonic smile across her pale face. "No… not exactly. This vision was a tad more pleasant. Before I tell you about it though, will you promise me you will do everything in your power to prevent anyone from getting hurt?"

"Why, yes. Yes! Of course, this is exactly why we brought you… well, yes."

"Good. Before I tell you about it though, there is something I want to show you." She raised her shield arm in the air. "You all have been pretty interested in learning about this shield. I'm sorry, but I don't want to tell you everything about it, I want to keep at least a few secrets to myself. I will show you one of its features, however." There was no response from Kaiji this time. That amused her. He must have been getting the idea that she was up to something.

She stuck her hand under the shield, and reached her arm far down inside of it. She reached so far that it would seem like a magicians trick, because it looked like her entire arm had disappeared. "I call this my shield space; a rather uncreative term, I know, but it sounded right." She started pulling her arm back out. "I can store anything I want in here, up to a certain size, and its space is endless. I once stored over three hundred RPGs inside of it. I know, that sounds like an exaggeration. Anyway, everything I take out is exactly the same as when I put it in, as if no time had passed, no matter how long it's been in there."

When her arm pulled out of the shield, it was holding onto a chrome suitcase which couldn't possibly have fit behind the shield on her arm. She set it down on the table, and angled it so no camera's could see inside. Then she started humming as she worked on twisting wires and connecting them to the right places which would set off a timer.

"Homura? What is that?" Kaiji asked. "What are you planning?"

"Kaiji, I had a vision that everyone in this lab is going to die tonight. Unless of course you can evacuate them within the next five minutes." When her work was done, she turned the suitcase around so that the cameras could see inside. "This case is filled with compact C4. It's a new version from the standard form which the general public doesn't know about yet. It has had significant testing, but there hasn't actually been any field use. I suppose today will be the first record taken of it being used against a real target. This will not be what kills the people in this lab, however. With a proper warning, which I will provide, everyone should be able to get out of the blast range before it goes off. The real danger is what's coming next."

"Homura, please stop." Kaiji said, a hint of panic in his voice, "I understand you have been treated poorly before, but I promise you that is going to change. If you go through with this, though..."

Homura snapped the case closed. "It's too late. You should stop wasting time talking to me, and make sure the building gets evacuated." She walked over to the garbage disposal.

"Homura! No! Stop!" She dropped it down, and listened as it banged and crashed all the way down to the bottom.

She looked directly at the camera. "Kaiji, five minutes from now anyone who is still in this lab will be in danger. If you try to put the gas on me, it will be less time. Do you believe me? In five minutes, everyone in this building will DIE!" Her room seemed to have sound proofing from the rest of the facility but with her magic enhanced hearing she was still able to just barely make out the sound of an alarm coming from behind the massive steel door.

"Ok, Homura, we're evacuating the building. Just as you asked."

"Good." She pulled out the GriefSeed which she had hidden up her sleeve, and shielded it in her palm. If she listened closely, she could hear its whispers. It just needed a touch more grief, and it would be ready to hatch. She may have purified the majority of her SoulGem last night, but there was still plenty left to put this GriefSeed over the edge, and allow its witch to be born. Just as she said, she would give the lab time to evacuate, however. Mainly to make sure the witch got baited to the outside, traveling inside its barrier would be useless if she just ended up jumping out inside another test room.

"Homura, you said you are planning something besides the C4? What is it?" Homura didn't respond. "Homura! WHAT IS IT!"

Her eyes instantly shot back to the camera. "Don't you DARE take that tone with me!" She screamed at the camera. "Don't you DARE presume to give me orders! Or try to command me! Or tell me what to do! EVER AGAIN! You should just be grateful I'm sparing your lives and giving you a fair warning! I didn't have to do that, you know, I could have waited for the middle of the day, and just allowed it to kill as many people as possible."

"Homura… please."

Her eyes narrowed "Why are you still talking to me?" She said, "My warning goes for you as well. If you don't get out of the lab, you're going to die… _Doctor_ Kaiji." She sat down at the table, and stared at the clock. Just a few minutes left.

She stared up at the ceiling, mentally counting down, and trying to ignore the insufferable sound of the fluorescent lightning which had been tormenting her for the last month. "You really think you can make things alright?" She mused her eyes were dark and intense. "You really think you can keep me locked up down here, and as long as you provide me with games and toys, I won't mind? You're a fool Kaiji. I think Dr. Endou had the right of it. If you're going to treat me like an animal, you might as well just treat me like a goddamn animal! Anything in between, and you're just in denial."

She laughed to herself as she rolled the GriefSeed around in the palm of her hand and stared at it. "You wanted to learn about my power. Well… if you're lucky, one of these camera's might just get a glimpse of what _real_ power looks like."

The clock ticked away the five minutes. Kaiji must have taken her advice and evacuated the building as well, because he didn't seem to have anything more to say.

 _Five more seconds…._

Suddenly, there was an explosion which shook the ground as if there had been an earthquake. The drawer of the garbage disposal flew off its hinges, and crashed into a wall, leaving behind a steady stream of flames which shot forth from the open hole like an oversized blowtorch.

Homura held the GriefSeed against her chest, and fed it the last bit of grief needed to force it to hatch. She opened her palm and the dark object floated up into the center of the room, spinning and lashing at the room around it with black lightning.

"It's been a _pleasure_ , Doctors." Homura said sarcastically, her hair whipping around as a strong wind blew through the confined space. Tiny embers from the fire danced around her, stinging her face. "I hope we never meet again, for your sakes."

Homura took a step towards the hatching GriefSeed; a wicked expression on her face as she became engulfed by the black lightning.

* * *

 **Ok, another pretty long chapter. It ended up taking longer to get out than I wanted, but I guess it's better to take a little longer and get it right rather than rush to get it out. The build up is finally coming to a head, next chapter should be pretty exciting :)**

 **As always, my goal is to update within 2 weeks, but that is always subject to change depending on how things go.**

 **Also, Alvaro84 has included Test Subject One in a fan art along with two other PMMM fics. Be sure to take a look! You can find it here:**

 **alvaro84 dot deviantart dot com/art/Junkies-remake-588501927**

 **Fanfiction doesn't let you post websites, so just make sure you replaces the 'dots' in the url :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Last chapter I said this would be the end of part one, but the chapter ended up being too long, so I'm splitting it into two.** _ **Again.**_ **This still has plenty of content and I'm sure you will feel it was worth the wait :)**

 **Also, since chapters are getting longer, a friend recommended a program called ficsave which can copy the story into a document with page numbers which will make it easier not to lose your place if you can't finish it in one sitting.**

 **You can find it here (exchange the 'dot')**

 **ficsave dot com**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The break room was usually deserted at this time of night. The lab was mostly shut down aside from some guard personnel and a couple staff members in the control room. Subject One would be soundly asleep in her room at this time, and thus the nights were usually pretty quiet.

Kotaro Sakazaki had just finished his shift and was sitting with the two guards who would take over after him. Kotaro was one of the few guards who actually got a chance to meet Subject One, or Homura as he now knew her as, so the two guards he was sitting with were picking his brain for information about her. There were lots of rumors about her, silently spoken amongst the staff, but very little was generally known about her unless you were a researcher or part of the control room.

"So, you've actually seen her?" Hiroshi asked. He was a short blond haired guard who typically worked the night shift. "The… uh, I guess, test subject?"

"Seen her? Yeah man, I even talked to her." Kotaro had his arms folded as he sat at the break room table with his two co-workers.

"What's she like?"

"Pretty normal, actually. She looks that way at first anyway. I honestly had trouble believing there was anything special about her at all when I first laid eyes on her. I wasn't with her in the test room; they told us to stay outside, but I did get to see her transform." Both of them seemed intrigued by this.

"Transform?" The second mustached guard asked, leaning forward. His name was Murakami. "Like, how?"

"Not sure if I'm supposed to give details." Kotaro said, leaning back and rubbing his chin.

"Oh, come on man." Said Hiroshi "I'm pretty sure you already told us more than you are suppose to anyway."

Kotaro grinned and shrugged his shoulders. The truth was, he had a feeling the description of her 'transformation' would end up being a disappointment; all it really did was change her clothing. It was actually much more amazing than just that, though, but it would be a difficult thing to convey.

"Can you at least tell us what she looks like?" Murakami asked.

"Heh, yeah, is she cute?" Hiroshi asked, grinning perversely.

"Well…" Kotaro thought it over, "She's kind of young, but yeah, she's cute. She's tall, has really long black hair, like, jet black. Her skin is kind of pale, but it looks like, real soft, you know? Well, like I said, she just looks normal, not really my type anyway, she's way too young. She looks like she's probably only in middle school, or a highschool freshman at the most."

"Really? She's that young?" Murakami asked, and Hiroshi blushed and quickly tried to knock the expression off his face. "So, what exactly do they want with her?"

"Just studying her, I guess. As you know, she supposedly has magic powers or something. I'm sure you both heard about the two guards she took out a week ago. They were practically clawing at the door, begging to be let out when she went all crazy on them." Kotaro leaned forward, "And let me tell you something, you can just see it in her eyes, she's got this expression like… man, I don't know how to describe it, it's intense. That look she sometimes gets, specifically when she gets pissed off; it's like she knows she can just snuff you out like _that_." He snapped his fingers, "At any second, but she doesn't even bother because it's just not worth her time. Kind of makes me think of this samurai movie I saw a while ago. It's that kind of an expression."

"Wish I could see her…" Hiroshi said, "I mean, see what the big deal about her is. Just look at this place, they sure went through a lot of trouble to make sure she can't leave, you know?"

"It is interesting that all this would be for just her." Murakami agreed, "Almost makes me think there is something else going on down here that we don't even know about."

"What do you mean?" Kotaro asked.

"I'm saying, there are a lot of doors that none of us have ever seen behind. They can't ALL be test rooms just for this one girl. I never see or hear of anyone else going in or out of these other doors. It's like there is a huge section of this place that doesn't get used at all."

"Maybe they just haven't found a use for those other areas yet? This place seems pretty new after all, well the underground part anyway, and they didn't build it specifically for Homura."

"Homura?" Hiroshi asked.

"Ah crap," Kotaro facepalmed, "Don't let anyone know I let that slip!"

Then the door of the break room opened and Furuhata walked in. "What are you three talking about in here?" He asked, with a harsh voice. He was the other guard who was assigned to Homura, the normally silent companion that was usually by Kotaros side when they escorted Homura from room to room. He had been here longer than any of them, and took his job really seriously.

"Just chatting." Kotaro said, and pulled out an empty seat that was next to him. "Here, take a seat." Then he shot a look to the other two to let them know not to tell him what they were talking about.

"These two should be starting their patrol." Futahara said. He and Kotaro had covered the previous shift, and Murakami and Hiroshi were suppose to cover the night shift.

"Yeah, we're getting to it right now." Murakami said as he stood up.

Just then, the room flashed red, and a loud buzzer went off. They all looked up, having been trained in the evacuation procedure, but not knowing what it possibly could be about. "What the?" Hiroshi said, standing up.

Even Furuhata, who was usually a rather stoic character seemed startled for a moment, but then he held his radio up to his mouth and said. "Report."

Then, all four of their radios buzzed on with the same voice. It was Dr. Kaiji, the secondary lead researching of the subject one project. " _Evacuate the building immediately! This is not a drill! I repeat, it's not a drill!"_

They all nodded to each other and gathered their gear. They typically left their rifles by the entrance of the break room when they were on break, so they went there to gather them. Once they were all set, they went out into the hall, each walking with quick steps.

The evacuation procedure was simple. All doors to the staff areas would be opened, so everyone inside could just run straight for the elevator room which would only be a couple minutes walk away.

"What do you think's going on?" Hiroshi asked, following at the tail end of the group, Murakami a few steps ahead of him, and Kotaro and Furuhata leading the small caravan. Each of them walked at a quick pace, their guns cradled in their arms and at the ready.

"Who knows." Kotaro said, "I got a bad feeling about all this though. It feels like…"

"It's colder in here than normal isn't it?" Murakami asked.

"Yeah, but that's not quite right." Kotaro held his gun with one arm so he could use a free hand to pinch himself. "It's like it's under the skin… it's eerie."

"Would you three quit it." Furuhata said, turning his head just enough to look back at them through the corner of his eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you? Remember your positions, and act more accordingly!"

"Don't tell me you don't feel it too!" Hiroshi yelled at him, feeling a shiver go through his body which made him glance backwards. "Wait… did someone just…" Murakami looked at him strangely for a moment.

"What?" Murakami asked.

"I thought I heard… something…" He shook his head, "Nevermind, it's nothing."

"We were given orders to evacuate, and we all were taught the evacuation procedure, so let's just continue with that and quit with the superstitious nonsense." Furuhata said.

They approached a metal door at the end of the hall. Furuhata looked up at the camera and waved. After a moment without the door opening he said, "Is anyone there? We were ordered to evacuate." Still no response. He lifted his radio to his mouth and spoke into it. "Furuhata, requesting passage through Door Alpha Six."

All of a sudden, they felt the ground shake. The fluorescent lighting overhead flickered, and the hall was suddenly completely pitch black. A low grumbling sound echoed through the halls, as if an explosion had gone off somewhere far on the other side of the lab.

"W-what was that?" Hiroshi asked, putting his back against the wall to keep from losing his footing as the ground shook. After a few moments the shaking slowed to a stop, and everything was still.

"Felt like a bomb just went off or something." Kotaro said after a moment. It was dark enough that he couldn't see any of his companions. "Everyone alright?"

"Yeah, I'm ok." Murakami said.

"Me too." Hiroshi answered. "D-do you think we are under attack or something? I mean, that's not impossible, right?"

"It's possible," Kotaro answered, and started reaching around his belt to find his flashlight.

Furuhata started speaking into his radio. "Report. What just happened? Report!"

It was clear that Furuhata's radio wasn't getting through, so Murakami tried his. "Murakami, radio check, please respond." He waited a moment, "If anyone can hear this, please respond!" Still nothing.

Just as Kotaro found his flashlight, all the overhead lights flashed back on. "Heh, there we go, at least we're not… in the…" He looked around with wide eyes, "Dark…"

Their surroundings had completely changed. Where they now stood was vaguely similar to the white empty halls of the lab in terms of layout, but everything else about it had changed.

The floors were made of wood, the walls now had wallpaper with a flower design on them, and every twenty paces or so there was a picture hanging on the wall.

One benefit to this change of scenery, is the door that had been blocking them had now disappeared. There was just an empty threshold with a wooden frame as opposed to the full metal one the lab normally had. Kotaro looked between his companions, hoping one of them had an explanation, but they each looked just as confused as him. "What's going on here?" He asked.

They all just looked uncertainly between each other for a moment until Furuhata answered. "I suppose it's not too much of a stretch to assume the test subject might have something to do with this?"

"Can she really do things like this?" Murakami asked. "You two are the only ones who have actually seen her."

Kotaro and Furuhata looked at eachother for a moment, then each shook their heads. Then Furuhata said "We didn't get to actually see her powers in action, so we have no idea what she can do. However," He pointed at the empty doorway. "If her goal is escape, then this makes sense. If the entire lab had changed the way this area had, then that means there are no longer any doors stopping her." He lifted his gun into a more ready position. "Therefore, would it not be our duty to try and stop her?"

"We were ordered to evacuate." Kotaro said, "Did you already forget the way Dr. Kaiji sounded over the radio? My guess is there is something more going on here than a simple change of scenery. At least, it feels that way to me. I say, our first priority should be evacuation, including anyone else who might be here." Furuhata seemed like he wanted to argue this point, but Kotaro put his hand up to silence him. "If we come across the test subject, then of course we ought to stop her, but for now lets just follow our order."

Hiroshi and Murakami nodded their agreement with this plan. After a moment of hesitation, Furuhata agreed as well.

"Alright then," Kotaro said. "It's settled. As long as only the scenery has changed, we'll be back at the elevator in no time." Then he turned and started leading the way.

* * *

After giving the guards the order to evacuate, Kaiji tried to evacuate himself. However, he found himself just standing in front of a metal door, and staring up at a camera. The emergency evacuation procedure that he had set off should have opened this door, and several others, which would leave a clear path to the exit. Homura's section of the lab would not be opened freely like this, but the areas that the employees mostly stayed in should have already opened.

He took a step back and looked up at the camera. "Is anyone there? If so, open this door right away, and all the other ones we will need to get through."

It was late at night, so thankfully there wouldn't be too many people in the lab. There would be three guards near the elevator, who shouldn't have a problem getting out. Then, there was normally two more patrolling other areas of the lab, but according to the logs the two from the previous shift hadn't actually gotten around to leaving yet. So, that was a total of four guards in the staff section. Then, there was the control room, and the research area. There were usually two staff members in the control room, and Kaiji himself was the only person currently in the research area.

If something had malfunctioned in the evacuation procedure, then that meant there was a total of seven people, including himself, who would be trapped here right now. Even so, the control room staff should still be able to open the doors no matter what; so why wasn't the door opening? Also, why were they not responding? If they had tried to leave already, they would have ended up stuck here at the same door as him. He decided just standing here wouldn't do any good, so he backtracked to the control room. Worst case scenario, he could just open the doors from there himself. The problem is, several minutes had already passed and Homura said she would only give them five.

He didn't know what else she had planned, but he remembered that she said the bomb itself wouldn't end up hurting anyone. Yet, she seemed pretty adamant to making him understand that anyone who remained in the lab after the five minutes would be in danger, and he had no reason not to believe her.

Why was she doing this, though? She should still be locked in her own room one way or the other. If she simply wanted to strike back at them, then why give a warning? Simply striking back for the sake of revenge was outside her personality, though. Especially since it would only hurt herself in the end. She was smarter than that, more calculated. He supposed he didn't have much time to think about it right now. First, he needed to get out of the lab.

He walked down the hall, and through a door that didn't require a passcode. Then, he arrived at the control room. The control room was blocked off by a metal door, but it was the type which simply needed a passkey. He reached for the keypad, but paused. There was a glass window in the center of the door, foggy enough that it couldn't be seen through, but he could at least see if the lights were on inside or not. Right now, the lights were flickering, black and white, and black and white.

He quickly punched in his password, and after a series of beeps, the door hissed and started sliding open.

Something was wrong with the overhead lights; they kept on flashing on and off. Perhaps a short circuit? The flashes of black tended to last longer than the light; it was like three seconds of darkness, then a quick flicker of light. It made it hard for him to see. Kaiji squinted as he looked inside the room, and saw the two control room workers sitting in front of their computers. "What's going on in here?" He said as he stepped in, "Why haven't you evacuated? And what's wrong with these lights?"

No response.

Because of the lighting, he couldn't tell right away. The flashes of black lasted longer, with only a brief flash of white. But after a moment, it registered… he saw red. His eyes widened as he approached the two people who were hunched over in their chairs with their backs facing him. As he got closer, the lights flashed on for three seconds, and that's all he needed.

Each of them had a pencil thin circle cut around their necks, as if they had been strangled by razor wire. Blood had poured from the wounds all the way down their bodies, staining their shirts and leaving puddles on the floor around them. One of them stared back at him with dead eyes, mouth wide open as if the man had died screaming.

Kaiji involuntarily jumped backwards and gasped. He ended up tripping over his own shoes, and hit the ground hard. His feet kicked at the ground and pushed himself away from the two bloody corpses which still sat at their computers.

Did Homura do this somehow? No, that would be impossible; she was securely locked in her room!… _but maybe…_

He knew that Kyoko Sakura could change her appearance, so maybe there are more like her? If their group could have gotten Kyoko in as a psychologist, maybe they could get someone else in as a member of the guard staff? However, even that didn't add up. All members of the guard were currently accounted for: four were in the break room, and three were in the elevator room. The only other people in the lab were these two corpses and Kaiji himself. So who could have done this?

Well, someone had to have done it, and it was clear that they worked in coalition with Homura's own attack, so it made sense to assume whoever the intruder was, they were on Homura's side. If that was the case, then the goal was likely to break her out. He cursed himself… He never should have let Kyoko go free, what was he thinking!

Kaiji got back to his feet and slowly approached the computer terminal to the left. His hand flinched as he pushed the dead staff member on the shoulder to roll him and the office chair he was on top of out of the way. He swallowed, feeling nervous. Whoever killed them could still be close by, and if they had a weapon he would have no way of defending himself. His brother taught him a few hand to hand techniques, and he used one of those techniques on Madoka Kaname's father successfully. However, against someone who actually knew what they were doing, he doubted it would end up working out the same.

With a shaky hand, he reached under the computer screen and pressed the power button. Nothing happened. Of course, the screens wouldn't have been turned off in the first place, so they were either broken or disconnected. He prayed for the latter. He could at least hear the soft hum of the terminal, so if he could turn the screen on, everything would be ok.

He reached around and felt for the wire.

Every time the lighting flashed on overhead, he had to try his best not to take notice of the two dead faces who were staring at him, and with each flash of darkness he had to shake away the crawling feeling on his back that told him something was about to jump at him.

He found the wire, and pulled. It was still connected to the back of the screen, but it gave up too much slack on the other end; meaning it was just unplugged after all. He got down to his knees, trying to ignore the blood soaked floor he was now kneeling in, and crawled under the desk. His heart was racing in his chest.

He had attended a few funerals in his life, and one of his medical classes back when he was still studying required a live demonstration on a cadaver. So, it wasn't the first time he had been near a dead body. However, being in the presence of someone who had just recently been killed, and still had their blood spilling out of their bodies, was completely different. Now, his knees were wet with the warm liquid, and in some disconnected part of his consciousness, deep in the back of his mind, he wondered how it was he wasn't screaming.

He felt around in the dark, waiting for the flashes of light to help him, but not seeing much the first few times. Finally, after an extended three seconds of brightness, he found the plug, and quickly grabbed ahold of it. He guided it into the outlet with a shaky hand.

How much time had passed? Surely the five minutes were almost up. Maybe Homura was just bluffing. Unless that was a _really_ powerful bomb, there is no way it would reach him all the way on this side of the lab, so that wasn't _too_ big of a concern. As for the other thing she wouldn't tell him about— the supposed _real_ threat; he prayed it really was a bluff.

He stood back up, and no longer had to rely on those brief flashes of light, because he now had the glow of the computer screen to see by. He should have gotten right to opening the lab doors so he and the guards could escape, but he stopped.

On the screen was the security footage of Homura in her room. She was still sitting at her table, looking up at the clock, and softly humming to herself. She was rolling something around in the palm of her hand.

" _You wanted to learn about my power?"_ She said, seemingly more to herself than to anyone else. " _Well… if you're lucky, one of these cameras might just get a glimpse of what real power looks like."_ She stood up, and her lips moved, silently counting down the last few seconds.

Then, it felt like the whole building was shaking, and Kaiji had to catch himself on the desk to avoid loosing his footing. He could hear the sound of the explosion coming through the computer, and it was echoed by a similar grumbling sound that came rushing up the hallway. The lights flashed black, and stayed black, the bomb had gone off.

He regained his balance and looked back up at the computer screen. Homura was now standing and holding her hand to her chest. Her hair was blowing around wildly as if some powerful source of wind existed inside her room. From this camera angle, Kaiji couldn't see the garbage disposal, but even the explosion wouldn't have been able to account for this much wind. The screen rippled with static, and it became hard to see.

There was a distortion a few feet away from Homura, like a magnet was being held against the screen, and strings of black lightning shot away from the center of it. Kaiji thought of the rainbow color that engulfed his phone earlier that day when he received a call from Leiko. The distorted area itself was difficult to make out, but the strings of black which emitted from it moved in the exact same manner as Leiko's rainbow static.

Homura walked toward the distortion. " _It's been a pleasure, doctors. I hope we never meet again, for your sakes."_ Her hair whipped around more violently, and the entire camera image became engulfed with gray static, but behind the static, he could still see her silhouette, and traces of the black lightning. The lightning almost seemed to wrap around her, and cling to her as if it were a conscious existence which wanted to pull her in.

He wanted to just contributed all this to an issue with the camera; logic would dictate that the black lightning and its source were just the camera itself going haywire because nothing like that existed in reality. However, Homura walked right up to the source of the lightning, and reached into it.

He had forgotten about needing to open the doors. Instead, he tried to click around on the computer and go to a different camera angle. What Homura said about ' _real power'_ was bothering him, and he had to know what it meant.

Then, Homura's silhouette disappeared, and the orb expanded so quickly it was like an explosion. Its dark color engulfed everything in the camera's line of sight until there was nothing but blackness under that constant layer of static which had taken over the screen.

The ground shook beneath Kaiji's feet, which forced him to step back, and his foot slipped on the blood which was pooled all around the computer desk. His feet came out from under him, and he fell forward, hitting his forehead on the desk. The lights stopped flickering, and the computer screen turned off; it was now completely dark inside the room.

"Ah… no…" He groggily muttered to himself as he touched the spot where he had just hit his head. The blow had opened a wound there, and it was already bleeding. It might need a few stitches but… why was he worried about that now? His life could be in danger; he needed to open the doors!

In the pitch blackness, he felt around for the desk, but his hands only grabbed thin air.

 _Where is it?_

If he could find the desk, he could feel around for the computer terminal. He needed to get the doors open. Otherwise, leaving this lab would be hopeless. He felt all around, but couldn't feel anything— _what?!_ —How was that possible? He had just smack his head on the damn thing! It should have been right in front of him!

Then, he heard a sound, and froze. It sounded like scratching.

The first time, the sound came from far away. Then it was closer.

Closer… there were two sources now, then three, from all different directions. His head shot around, back and forth; the scratching noises kept getting closer.

"Who's there?" He called into the darkness. "Speak! Who are you?" At the sound of his voice, the scratching stopped, but only momentarily. Then it started again, but this time it was slower, as if whatever was making the noise was moving more cautiously.

He heard a voice. It spoke in a hoarse whisper… " _Baaaad... maaaaan."_

 _Bad man?_ Kaiji swallowed, and cautiously spoke into the darkness. "H-Homura?" No, that wasn't possible! Why did he even say that? She was still locked in her room! Just like she always was.

" _Nooooooo."_ The voice spoke again.

Then, he thought of that other voice, the one who had led him to finding Kyoko Sakura. That voice was different, that voice seemed to speak directly into his head, and there was always this cold chill in the air which accompanied it. Besides that, the earlier voice was distinctly female, either that or the voice of a small child… This voice that he heard now was completely different; it barely sounded human. When it spoke, Kaiji could feel its physical presence, as if he could pick out its exact location even here in the pitch dark.

The slow cautious scratching came closer and closer to him, coming from all sides.

"Are you the one who led me to Kyoko Sakura?" Kaiji asked.

" _Nooooooo…"_

The scratching was closer, and closer. He could sense them, less than five meters from him now… maybe even closer. "What do you want!" He shouted.

" _Baaaaaad… maaaaaan…"_ Was that snickering? Laughter? " _Does evil things… Makes evil things… Baaaaad things. Baaaad men… Make baaaaaad things._ "

"Damn it!" Kaiji screamed into the darkness, "Who the hell are you!"

" _Eeeevil… knows it's evil… doesn't want to know… doesn't want to see…"_ Kaiji could see them now. Tiny eyes were staring at him from all sides, glowing in the darkness. Their tiny hands were scratching at the ground as they inched closer and closer. " _Denies…"_ The scratching stopped. Kaiji looked toward the sound of the voice, and saw a bigger set of eyes. He could almost make out a face. It wasn't a human face, because the face itself was the size of a human body, and when it opened its mouth to speak, Kaiji could just barely make out the white of its fangs. " _Denies… everything…"_

"Oh god…" Kaiji fell to his knees and just stared. This was a nightmare, it had to be! This wasn't real!

" _Shall I show you?"_ The face whispered to him.

Kaiji shook his head, dully. Whatever this monstrosity wanted to show him, he didn't want to see it. He just wanted all this to go away, he wanted to take back whatever sin it was that put him in this horrid place, and just go back home and be with his family. " _Please…"_ Kaiji begged, and he could hear a tittering laughter.

" _Shall I show you... despair?"_

* * *

The room in which she had been imprisoned for the last three weeks twisted and folded in on itself. As if it were a plastic box that a giant pair of hands had grabbed onto from the outside, and started smashing together like a piece of trash which needed disposing. Homura looked down at her arm and saw it twisting in a similar fashion; growing longer as if it were made of rubber and being stretched out.

This wasn't an abnormal experience for her. Not all witches barriers had the same effects when entering them. Sometimes the entrance was more like a door. Other times, it just sort of appeared around you. The first labyrinth she ever experienced had the latter appearance method. That was before she was a Magical Girl herself, all those countless lifetimes ago, when she was a weak and unconfident child. She had only vague memories of that day, and that person who she used to be, but the one thing that stuck with her was being saved by Madoka. That was the first time she saw the true strength which was hidden behind the silly schoolgirl; and it was the first time she felt herself falling in love.

When the labyrinth finished appearing, she found herself in a dark room. Not much could be seen, but she could hear it. A quick, panicked scratching sound, like an animal trying to burrow its way out of a cage. She focused her magic into her own eyes and searched. She saw a set of long furry insect-like legs grasping the edges of a doorway, as the creature which was otherwise hidden by the darkness pulled itself through.

"Trying to run away, huh?" Homura said to herself, pulling a pistol from under her shield and taking a few shots in the creature's direction. They were just warning shots, to keep the creature scared of her. She didn't want to actually confront it yet; right now, she just wanted to keep some distance and follow it.

If Kaiji had taken her warning, and evacuated the lab, then the witch would be drawn towards the exit which the guards and other lab staff should be going out of. All she had to do was follow it there, using its labyrinth to pass through the fabric of reality, and thus get past the steel doors.

She didn't have much experience with GriefSeeds hatching into witches, but she had witnessed it at least a couple times throughout her many timelines. From what she could tell, when the seed hatched, it didn't hatch into exactly the same witch which had dropped it. They were usually similar, and had similar natures, but not _exactly_ the same.

It was a similar scenario to when a witch's familiar breaks off and becomes a witch itself. The newly hatched witch was a combination of remnants from the old one, it's victims, and possibly even parts of the Magical Girls who had used its seed to purify themselves.

Luckily, this witch didn't seem to have an aggressive nature, because it was quick to try and run away from her without so much as a challenge. This was probably because there still lingered some memories of a previous encounter with a Magical Girl. This witch was an infant, but must have carried such memories over from it's predecessor, and knew that a Magical Girl would be a danger to it.

Homura followed it out of the doorway, brushing webs away from her face as she exited the dark room. After exiting the room, she found herself in a much brighter environment, and dispelled the magic she used to enhance her eyesight. She was now in a well lit hallway, the walls were covered in wallpaper with a light pink flower design, and the floors were made of wood. Every twenty steps or so, there was a picture hanging from the wall. She stopped at the first one and looked at it.

It was a picture of a field of red flowers, drawn at an angle so she could see the field stretch far over the horizon and meld with a bright blue sky. Somewhere in the center of the field, she noticed a spot of black. She had to squint her eyes and look carefully to see that it was a girl. She had long black hair, and sat facing the horizon.

Looking at the picture, Homura thought she could smell something, it was a familiar smell. Subtle, but sweet. She raised an eyebrow and slowly backed away from the painting, feeling a bit of discomfort. Then, she quickly started moving her feet again, to continue down the hallway. She told herself she had to keep moving so the witch wouldn't get too far away. In reality, she wasn't admitting to herself that the picture was bringing forth some vague memory, one that she knew she would be better off forgetting.

Witches don't usually target Magical Girls, being that Magical Girls are higher up on the metaphoric food chain which Kyoko use to like referring to so much. Given a choice between hunting rabbits and mountain lions, the obvious choice would be rabbits. That's why witches usually avoid provoking Magical Girls and only target humans. In most cases, it's not until the Magical Girl strikes first that the witch starts defending itself. Either that, or if the Magical Girl does something to disturb the witch's labyrinth.

Homura continued down the hallway until she stopped at the next picture. This one didn't have the same kind of familiarity as the first one, but there was something else strange about it.

It was a picture of a rocking chair. The chair sat atop a wooden floor, similar to the one in this hallway. There was a window in the background with a bright light coming through, and Homura noticed small patches of webbing under the chair. What was strange is, she thought she could see the chair moving very slightly, as if it had caught a small gust of wind.

She blinked, and then slowly raised her shield hand toward the picture. Her hand got closer, until the skin of her fingertips were so close they could almost feel the surface of the paint. Then, Homura saw the rocking chair move, and there was no mistaking it this time. She stopped, and took a step back. Her shield arm dropped back to her side. She raised her gun at the picture, and fired.

Black goo exploded from where the bullet connected, and she heard a monstrous scream. She jumped back and kept the sights of her gun focused on it. The image disappeared, and the picture sank into the wall, leaving behind a square hole. Then, four furry claws, similar to the ones she had seen before, reached out of the hole and grabbed around the edges. Homura fired her gun three more times, and the screaming stopped.

The grip the claws had around the edges of the hole loosened, and the creature they belonged to fell out and hit the floor with a thud. It was similar to a spider, but much larger. It had a total of eight clawed legs protruding from its body, and was covered in dark brown fur; \On its belly, the brown had different shades. It took a moment for her to realize it, but the different shades were in fact creating an image: an image of a screaming face.

She kept her gun focused on it as strings of light gray smoke rose from the bullet holes. When its body started to dissolve into black goo, she was satisfied that it was dead, and continued walking. When she was halfway to the next picture, she heard a sound, and she stopped. Something had hit the floor with a thump, and then there was the sound of dozens of small legs tittering across the floor.

She swung around with her gun at the ready.

More of those spider familiars were crawling out of the hole. It had only been a few seconds, but there were already a dozen of them, and more were coming. Some dropped onto the floor, others crawled along the walls, and a few even crawled all the way up to the ceiling before heading towards her. She readied her gun and started firing at them.

The first shot hit its target cleanly, and sent the familiar rolling onto its back with a scream. She kept her sight steadily aimed as she shifted to another, which was crawling along the floor at a quick pace and baring its fangs at her. She fired, and missed. Fired again, another miss, leaving a bullet hole just mere inches from the creatures feet.

 _Concentrate_ , she told herself. She steadied her aim, and on her third attempt, finally hit the familiar when it was just a few meters from reaching her. By now, at least a dozen more had dropped from the hole. The walls, floor, and ceiling were covered with them, and she quickly realized it would be impossible to shoot them all.

Just as one from the ceiling dropped down in a lunge, heading right for her face, she focused her magic and stopped time. The creature stayed suspended in the air, strings of green slime clinging to its open fangs less than a meter from Homura's face. She pointed her gun under its belly, and fired. The bullet froze upon contact

She started walking back towards the hole in the wall that had spawned them, sending a bullet at each familiar she passed, shooting from point blank range. She reloaded her weapon once during the process.

When she first started firing at the familiars, before time was stopped, she realized something was wrong with her. Normally, her aim was impeccable. This time, she had missed two out of four shots. They weren't the easiest targets to hit, granted, but on a normal day she would have been four for four. It was the drug… it had to be.

Aside from her aim being off, she could just feel it in her blood. Normally when she was in the heat of battle like this, she could feel her heart pumping in her chest, and her vision felt sharper. Her body would move naturally, making all the correct moves with barely having to think about it. This time, despite facing a horde of familiars, she felt slow and sluggish… She silently cursed the bastards who had done this to her.

She walked back to the hole in the wall, shot the last of the familiars, and produced a grenade from behind her shield. She pulled the pin, and waited a few seconds before tossing it into the hole. Then, she continued on her path, and resumed time once she was halfway down the hall. There was a series of screams from the dying familiars, and then an explosion as the grenade went off. She glanced back to make sure no more were coming, and all she saw were black splatters all along the walls and ceiling, and a hole with fire coming out of it.

She had taken care of all the familiars for now, but she had another problem. If she looked further back the way she came, she saw the wooden floors and wallpapered halls were disappearing and returning to the more familiar sight of the labs white walls and tiled floors. That meant the witch was on the move, and it was going fast. Already, it had moved its barrier far enough ahead of her that she risked being left behind if she didn't hurry. She had a simple remedy for that, however, and let the gears of her shield spin to stop time once again.

As she continued, she would glance at each of the pictures along the way. One that caught her eye looked like a high definition photo of a spider web which was taken after a light rain fall. There were tiny beads of water hanging onto the web, and they glistened as they caught a bit of sunlight.

Homura slowed to a stop and stared at it; the quality was so good that she had the impression she could stick her hand right past the frame and actually touch it. However, using a spider web as a trap was just a little too obvious, even if she hadn't already confirmed that the witches familiars live behind these pictures. If the picture itself was connected to the witch's consciousness, Homura risked pulling the whole labyrinth into her time flow which would not only drain her magic very quickly, but also take away her biggest advantage.

After crossing another threshold, she glanced back and saw that the labyrinth was no longer fading. She had purified her SoulGem very recently, so it was in good shape with only a slight hint of fog, but she still wanted to play it safe and conserve her magic. So she resumed time, and continued.

A few minutes later, and another two thresholds crossed, she looked back and saw that the barrier's edge wasn't catching up to her. She knew the witch moved much faster than her, so she should have at least seen small traces of reality bleeding through by now. This could only mean two things: either the range of the barrier was expanding, or the witch had stopped moving. Both of those possibilities would be a problem.

If the barrier was expanding, that meant the newborn witch had found nourishment in the form of a human who didn't take her advice to evacuate. It would be hungry for its first meal, but if it got its fill and no longer had an appetite, it would stop trying to chase the humans out of the lab, and the plan would be ruined.

This plan failing would mean her death. She gave little credit to Kaiji's words; Endou or no Endou, she was a Magical Girl and she could not survive in this place forever.

She had already gotten a small taste of their secret drug, and even now she felt its effects coursing through her body. That was done to her with little justification, simply because she would not _cooperate_ with her captors.

She had been playing the sheep these last three weeks. She may have attacked a few guards and stubbornly disobeyed their rule, but this whole time she had been hiding the truth of just how powerful she _actually_ was. Surely they knew that now. If they had known from the very beginning what she was _really_ capable of, there is no doubt she would have been drugged right on the first day she was brought here. Her hand was now shown, and thus there would be no mercy. After tonight, she imagined even Kaiji himself would agree she needed to be sedated. Therefore, there was no room for failure. She had to get out.

 _She had to…_

* * *

The four guards continued down the hallway. Kotaro at the head, and Furuhata just a few steps behind. Hiroshi and Murakami took the tail of the group.

Murakami kept checking the radio every couple of minutes, hoping an answer would come. "Murakami, radio check, if anyone can hear this please respond. Murakami, radio check, please respond."

"It doesn't seem to be working." Hiroshi commented.

"Yeah no kidding." Murakami said with some annoyance in his voice, as he stuffed the radio back into its holster. He took a double take on their new surroundings to confirm what he already knew, and said "Damn it! What the hell is going on here?"

"That's the million dollar question right now, my friend." Kotaro said under his breath, leading the group. His rifle had been at the ready ever since the lights turned back on and they found themselves in this new place. "I want to say that this is definitely still the lab, at least."

"What makes you say that?" Hiroshi asked.

"Either that, or somehow we magically tele…" Kotaro trailed off as he slowed to a stop. He shook his head and laughed. "Teleportation, I heard a rumor that's what Homura's power is. Never saw it myself."

"Sakazaki!" Furuhata spat at him, "That's classified information!"

"What? Some rumor I heard?" Kotaro asked with a raised eyebrow as he turned to his coworker. "I have no idea if it's true or not, therefore it's not a breach of protocol."

"The test subjects name…" Furuhata pointed out, patiently.

"Jesus man," Kotaro said, letting his gun sling to the side, abandoning the battle ready posture for the first time since all this started. "I think we've got some slightly bigger issues to worry about right now, don't you?" Then Kotaro shrugged and scratch the side of his nose, "Besides, I kind of let that slip already, anyway. And it's not like these two aren't a part of the staff in the first place. I'm sure that simply knowing her name isn't a problem."

Furuhata narrowed his eyes, then turned away. "We should keep moving." The rest of the group followed him.

They had been walking for a while now. None of them seemed to want to point out that if they were indeed still in the lab, as they had hoped, they would have reached the elevator room long ago. It was becoming apparent that the physical appearance of the walls were not the only thing that was changing.

They had passed at least a dozen pictures by now, most of them were either pictures of spider webs or rocking chairs, but even when a rocking chair was the focus of the picture, there was still some traces of a spider web somewhere within the image.

Every once in awhile they would pass a picture that didn't fit with the others. Kotaro slowed to a stop at one such picture… it was a picture of a swimming pool. Murakami and Hiroshi stopped right away, but it took Furuhata a moment to realize his group trailed behind him.

The swimming pool Kotaro was looking at was taken from an overhead angle. Half of the pool had a bright blue glow coming off it, as if there was some blue light source hitting it which originated from behind the view of the camera.

On the other half, the half of the pool he was more focused on, he noticed a shadow under the water. As he focused on it, he noticed movement. He blinked. It was just a picture, but he saw something move. The shadow under the water's surface was turning, and there was red leaking away from it, slowly changing the color of the water.

His eyes widened, and his hands loosened their grip on his gun. Something about this picture was disturbing him… making him remember something. The shadow turned more, and he looked closer… it was a person… with long blond hair which separated into a mess of disconnected golden threads under the water's surface. When the shadow finished its rotation, he saw a face. He suddenly took a step back and gasped.

"Kotaro, you alright man?" Hiroshi asked, and hearing the voice of one of his comrades seemed to bring him back to reality. Kotaro still felt cold sweat on his face, and he imagined his face was a shade paler than normal. He looked at his companions, and back to the picture, and saw that the shadow under the water was gone. It was just an ordinary picture of a swimming pool again.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kotaro said as he repositioned his gun in his hands. "Let's hurry up and get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps." Hiroshi looked at the picture Kotaro had been staring at, but all he saw was a normal swimming pool, with no explanation for why his co-worker had become so fixated on it. He just shrugged and looked back towards his other co-workers who were moving along once again. Before following them, he took a double take on the picture… and saw that it had changed.

Now, Hiroshi saw a picture of a tree with a tire swing hanging from it, and a lake in the background. That lake was familiar to him… This picture was of his uncle's farm, and that lake always had a way of bringing up a certain memory of his. One he partly cherished, and also despised himself for… staring at the picture he could see the tire swing slowly start to rock back and forth… and he could hear her voice calling to him, just like she did all those years ago...

"Yo Hiroshi." Murakami shouted back at him. "You coming or what?"

Hiroshi shook himself out of it. "Yeah! Right behind you, man!" He took one last glance at the picture to see that it had changed once again. Now it was back to the more consistent image of a spider's web that was seen in the other pictures in the hall. His feet moved slowly at first as he walked away, then he eventually sped up his pace to catch up with his comrades.

As he caught up to them, he tightened his gun to his chest and rubbed his arms, feeling that cold feeling from earlier. "Man, it sure is cold in here." He said.

Kotaro raised an eyebrow and looked back at him. "Think so? Feels fine to me."

"Seriously?" Hiroshi asked, and started glancing around as if he had heard something. He frowned when he decided it was nothing. "I'm freezing."

Murakami looked back at Hiroshi and noticed something. Hiroshi had a tatoo on his neck that Murakami had never noticed before. It took the shape of a blue spiderweb. Murakami opened his mouth to say something about it, just as Hiroshi absentmindedly put a hand over it. When Hiroshi's hand lowered again, the tattoo was gone.

"What's up?" Hiroshi asked, noticing the way Murakami was looking at him.

Murakami rubbed his eyes, and looked closer, verifying that the tattoo was gone. He figured he must have imagined it, and shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry, it's nothing."

After another few minutes, and passing two more thresholds, they finally arrived at something new. There was now a crossroads in the hallway. There were now three paths they could choose from, left, right or continuing forward.

Kotaro sighed, "Now what?" As he glanced down each. They each just stretched as far as the eye could see, with no change in scenery from the wooden floors and wallpapered walls they have been stuck in this entire time.

Furuhata seemed to have come to a conclusion. "We keep heading the same way." He said, pointing down the path in front of them. "Our goal is to reach the elevator room, and we all know that it should be this way."

"That's if the elevator room even exists in this place…" Murakami pointed out. "I mean, we should have reached it like half an hour ago if it did."

Kotaro rubbed his temples. "Man, this place is seriously messed up." He took a moment to sooth his frustration, then slowly took a look down each path. "I guess we have to pick one though, no point just standing here… and I guess Furuhata's right, the forward path is probably the best."

"Hey guys…" Hiroshi said slowly, with a small quavering voice which seemed far enough away from his normal personality that everyone looked at him with a concerned expression. He had his arms tightly huddled into his body, his gun cradled within his grasp.

"Hiroshi?" Kotaro asked, "You good man? You're white as a sheet."

"Yeah man!" Hiroshi answered with a grin. His smile seemed humorous but his eyes were heavy and exhausted. "I was just thinking… maybe we should split up."

The other three looked amongst each other. Furuhata was the one to answer, "I think that is a bad idea. We don't want to end up losing each other in this place. And what if one of us finds an exit? We have no way to tell the others, our radios are not working."

"Yeah, I'm with Furuhata on this one." Kotaro said, "Let's just go up the north path."

Hiroshi shook his head and turned to the right path. "Alright, you guys go that way, I'm going this way." And he started walking.

"Hiroshi!" Murakami called after him, "Keep your head and stick with the group! What's the point of us splitting up?"

Hiroshi turned back with a dark scowl on his face. "I'm going this way, alright!" He yelled, "And you're not stopping me!" He pointed down the path, "Look, she's going to show me how to get out of here!"

"She?" Murakami asked, and looked at Kotaro and Furuhata. Hiroshi was pointing at something, but there was nothing there.

"Hey… Hiroshi… That tattoo on your neck…" Kotaro pointed out, cautiously. Murakami's eyes widened when he saw it too, realizing he hadn't imagined it after all.

Hiroshi grinned and put his hand over it. "It's fine, man. Look, I'm going with her, alright?"

"Hiroshi!" Furuhata yelled with a commanding voice. "You've lost your head, there's no one there!"

"Riiiight…" Hiroshi said with a small chuckle. "She said you guys might not be able to hear her. She's the reason it's so damn cold in here too. She apologised for that though, so it's cool. Anyway, see you guys later."

Furuhata turned to Murakami. "Retrieve him." He said.

Murakami nodded and started following after him. All of a sudden, Hiroshi turned with his gun held firmly in his hands. And he fired.

"Gaaaaah!" Murakami screamed and fell back. The bullet hit him right in the shoulder, and he instinctively put his hand over the wound. Kotaro and Furuhata both raised their guns.

"What the hell, man!" Kotaro shouted.

"Just stay back alright!" Hiroshi said. Then, he suddenly seemed distracted. His gun shifted away from the group which made them relax at least a little. "What's that? The picture?" He grinned, "Heh, alright then." He pointed his gun at a picture of a spider web to his right, and fired.

They all heard a high pitched screech echo through the hall, as if it were created by a wounded animal. Then, Hiroshi turned and started walking away.

Kotaro moved to chase after him, but stopped when he noticed furry brown claws grab the edge of the picture frame. Actually, it wasn't a picture anymore, it was just a hole in the wall. "What the hell?" He said under his breath.

All of a sudden, the claws tensed their grip, and all at once the creature they belong to sprung out of the hole. Kotaro reflexively swatted at it with the barrel of his gun, and knocked it out of the air. It hit the wall, and fell to the floor, but continued to crawl after him. It looked like an oversized spider. It's mouth opened, revealing a series of sharp fangs which none of them had ever seen on any spider before.

Kotaro lifted his boot and stomped on it as it got closer. There was a disgusting hissing noise, and the creature dissipated into black goo.

"L-Look!" Murakami shouted. Kotaro glanced back to the hole in the wall and saw more of those giant spiders falling out of it, one after another. It had only been seconds, but there were already dozens of them! Murakami scrambled back to his feet, and Furuhata started firing shots at them.

"Hiroshi!" Kotaro screamed, "What the hell is this!"

"Don't worry, man." Hiroshi said with a smile, he was now separated from the group by a wave of spiders, none of which seemed to pay any attention to him and instead focused on his three co-workers. "She says she'll come back for the rest of you." His eyes darkened, "So it's all good."

Then, he walked up to the wall and… walked right through it! As if there was no wall there at all. Next thing Kotaro knew, he was gone.

"HIROSHI!" Kotaro screamed again, continuing to fire his gun at the endless horde of spiders.

* * *

Homura started making a habit of planting C4 near the spider web pictures as she passed them. Most of the pictures were either of spider webs, or a rocking chair, and these are the pictures she targeted. Every once in awhile there would be a variation, usually something to do with red lilies. These, she would just take notice of for a moment, but leave alone. After each threshold she passed, she would set off the C4 she had lain in the hallway, and look back to see the small bodies of the burning familiars fall from their holes.

She had been continuing without her time-stop magic for a while now, and it disturbed her that the witch's barrier had seemed to stop moving. She was worried that something may be going wrong with the plan, and wondered if she should have given them more than five minutes to evacuate. She thought that would be plenty, but now she wondered.

She walked through another threshold, and saw spiderwebs clinging to the top corners of the hall. The wall paper in this new area had a dirty brown color, and was torn in some places. She readied her gun and proceeded with caution, and used her SoulGem to check for the witches presence. She could feel its pulse, and it was indeed closer than it had been, but she felt something else… It had a similar feel to it, but weaker. It was most likely a familiar, a more powerful one than the ones she had faced so far, one that could possibly become a witch itself one day.

Not always, but sometimes in labyrinths she would cross such a familiar. She would say that it was at least fifty percent of the time that a witch had a familiar who sort of like its second in command... if that was the right term to use. Looking down the hall, she saw a doorway off to the side, and spiderwebs clung around its frame with more density than anywhere else she had seen so far. She put her back to the opposite wall, and slowly inched closer to it with her gun at the ready. She could feel the pulsing of the familiar's presence through her SoulGem. There was no doubt about it, it was in the room.

Something else came through her SoulGem, with each wave of the pulse, she could hear sounds… words being spoken directly into her head. There was at least a dozen disconnected voices, and each of them held a distinct tone of negativity.

' _Sorry kiddo, not going to be able to make it to the-''but you promised!''look bro, he's a good cop, he just made a mistake so help me cover this up and-''you seem troubled I wish you could-''Galazadrine? Where'd you get that name from?''testing successful, let's celebra-''where do you go? It's like you're here, but-''we just want to help her''SHE NEEDS TO BE CONTROLLED!''is this really ok?''I'm not like them… I'm a murderer''I'm going to die here''This is wrong! It's all wrong!'_

Homura shook her head and released her focus from her SoulGem and silenced the voices. Right away she knew what this was, and it meant exactly what she had feared had come true. There was at least one person who hadn't made it out of the lab, but thankfully it was only a familiar who had captured him.

Homura's first choice would be to toss a grenade inside before running in herself, guns blazing, but if someone was trapped inside there, which seemed to be the case, she would risk killing an innocent person… Well, maybe _innocent_ was a bit of a generous term, but she still wasn't the type to kill needlessly.

She had a couple flashbangs stored in her shield space, but they usually didn't seem to have much effect on witches. That was an item she kept as a nonviolent means of solving a confrontation with another Magical Girl. Mami had been the most common recipient of that little toy in her past time lines. Usually it was to prevent her from being decapitated by a certain witch who had an affinity for sweets.

She raised her hand to her shield, deciding the only way to proceed cautiously would be to do so inside her own timeflow.

Then, something jumped down from the ceiling. She didn't have time to react, and her field of vision was taking over by the sight of hissing fangs before the creature latched onto her face with its brown claws. She screamed, and batted it away, but it had already managed to dig its fangs into the side of her cheek. She dropped her gun and grabbed it with both hands, forcefully ripping it away from her. She succeeded, but lost a good chunk of her cheek in the processes, and was left with a few deep scratches on the sides of her head from where the creature had clung on.

Holding it in the palm of her hand, she swung it around and slammed it into the wall. There was a sickening crunch as it was crushed under her palm, and its fangs let out one last hissing screech. Just as she let the creature go, so it could drop to the ground, she stopped time.

Then, she felt something bite into her ankle. She screamed and kicked it away. At least six more of those spider familiars surrounded her, and each of them had a thick string of web wrapping around her ankles. That contact would be plenty for them to remain in her timeflow. She mentally cursed herself as she put her back to the wall and tried kicking them away. How could she have not noticed them before? She partly blamed the drug; she was less observant, and her reaction time was slowed. Normally, she would have easily been able to swat that first one out of the air before receiving such a gruesome wound on her face.

One had already clung to her leg, but she was successful in kicking away the others so far. For now, she had ignore the fact that her leg was being gnawed on, and produced an uzi from her shield space. She riddled the ground around her with bullets, firing in a blind panic. It managed to kill at least two of them, but another two managed to evade the spray of bullets and latch onto her. There was now one of each leg, and another digging its fangs into her stomach.

She dropped the uzi and produced a knife. She stabbed the one that was latched to her stomach, the blade going clean through and puncturing her own flesh. She pulled it out, and stabbed it at the familiars on her legs, managing to avoid cutting herself along with those two. The dead creatures fell away from her body, and she joined them as she fell to her knees, gasping to catch her breath and tried to slow her racing heart.

 _Don't lose focus_. She told herself, after only a moment of rest. She quickly grabbed the uzi that was to her side, and rolled over onto her back. Two more familiars were lowering themselves down from the ceiling. She put her finger on the the trigger- and…

She laughed, and let her arm fall to her side. Those two that were above her were simply frozen in time. She focused on her SoulGem, and let her healing magic cover her body. The previously throbbing pain from her bites and scratches was replaced by a warm refreshing feeling as the wounds closed.

 _Familiars… familiars did this to me… How could I be so weak?_

Once she was healed, she got back to her feet and considered the doorway. She couldn't see through because of all the webbing. The witch wasn't behind it, but it's likely a much more powerful familiar than the ones she had faced so far. She worried that this familiar had already caught a victim, and if that were the case it couldn't be left alone. Not just for the sake of its victim's life, but if it got a good enough fill of grief, it was entirely possible it could evolve into a witch itself. Another witch running around this damned place is the last thing she needed right now.

She had to be careful of the webbing. Her time stop magic was powerful, but it had one glaring weakness: anything that was in contact with her would be pulled into her timeflow as well. In all her countless repeats, there was only one opponent who would consistently take advantage of this weakness, and that was Mami Tomoe.

With Mami, any contact with her ribbons would be sufficient for the effect, whether the ribbon was physically attached to Mami or not. If these webs worked the same way, then she would pull its owner into the timeflow along with her and she'd lose her advantage. She didn't know how smart this witch was, or how well its consciousness was connected with its familiars, but it would be wise to assume that her opponent had discovered this weakness already. The fact the the familiars who she had just defeated exploited it was proof enough that she had to be really cautious now.

She returned the uzi to the shield space and replaced it with a flame thrower. It was small, with a half liter fuel tank attached, but it should be plenty for this purpose. She unleashed the flames onto the web, spraying its stream back and forth until there was a big enough opening for her to duck under. The upper part of the web still had motionless flames clinging to it, but once she resumed time it would finish the job.

She ducked down and crossed the threshold, careful not to touch any of the remaining webs, and then found herself in the most disturbing environment this labyrinth had yet offered.

The walls raised high in the air, with layer upon layer of webbing covering the sky above. If Homura looked through the webs, she could see the sky of the faux dimension; it was an unnaturally dark shade of blue which emitted more light than its dark color should be able to. It gave everything in the room a disturbing blue tint. Littered amongst the webbing were lumpy black sacks, which Homura recognised to be spider eggs.

If even one of the eggs hatched, she imagined she would have thousands of tiny flesh eating spiders to contend with, but there were simply too many for her to destroy. She would have to finish her business here and get out right away, before this situation became more dangerous than it already was.

Her target at least was in plain sight, and with time stopped, destroying it would be a simple task. It was huge, towering over Homura by at least ten meters, and it was fat. It had eight spiny legs protruding from its body, and it sat upon its fat abdomen. Its face was somewhat more human-like than the other familiars. It was distorted though, with a long jaw that hung far below its beady, multicolored eyeballs. It's mouth was wide open, revealing a series of long white fangs which looked sharp enough to slice through solid steel.

Homura produced a pipe bomb from under her shield. She stared into the creature's gaping mouth and grinned. _Sometimes it's just too easy_. Although, she did feel this method was a bit anticlimactic. Mami or Kyoko likely would have gone with something a little more theatrical, but Homura was always one for practicality.

She armed the pipebomb and carefully set it inside the creature's mouth. Now all she would have to do is leave the room, take a few steps down the hall, and resume time, then this oversized familiar would no longer be a problem for her.

She dropped the pipe bomb into the creature's mouth, then prepared to leave, but something caught her eye. In the back corner of the room there was a tightly knitted cocoon, lumped up on the center of a thick spider web. She walked closer to it, and her eyes widened. Her hand slowly reached under her shield and produced a handgun, and she aimed at the head of the cocoon.

The web was tight against the man's body, and she could see the outline of glasses upon his face. Just killing him now would be the merciful thing to do. Undoubtedly, the voices she heard earlier, from outside of this room, were the voices of this man's despair. At least the familiar who would have fed off of him would be killed soon. If she just left him here, however, he might end up attracting the witch. Not only would that hurt her own chances of escape, that would also be an even worse fate for this man.

She slowly put her finger on the trigger, feeling her heart starting to race inside her chest. She had never killed someone before. Throughout her many timelines, she had done many horrible things, she had betrayed her closest friends, and plenty of other sins she would rather just forget… Murder however… and murder of a defenseless man, an ordinary human. That is something she had never done before.

Her hand shook, and she raised her other hand to the handle of the gun to help steady her aim. Her grip tightened, and her finger pulled down a quarter inch on the trigger.

She let out a frustrated sigh and her gun lowered. "Damn it…" She whispered to herself. "I can't do it." She glanced back at the oversized familiar, then back to it's victim. What was she suppose to do? Try to drag an ordinary human through this godforsaken place? The familiar had already gotten to him, his mind was probably already damaged beyond repair… but… the word _probably_ still inferred there was a chance that might not be the case, and maybe this man could be saved.

The second she tried to tear the webs away from him, the witch's consciousness would probably be pulled into her timeflow. At the very least, that would be the case for familiars that occupied this room… If she did just let this man die though… Madoka would never know about it, but none the less Homura would never be able to face her again with something like that weighing on her conscious. At least when she repeated time she could tell herself she had undone her sins. This time, it would be permanent, and she would have a hard time ever forgiving herself if she didn't at least try. There was no choice, she had to at least try to save him.

She returned the gun behind her shield, and reproduced her knife. Then, got closer to the man and prepared to cut him free. She was keenly aware of the horde of unhatched spider eggs that hung above her, so she would have to be quick.

The gears spun, and the metal casing of her shield snapped shut. Time resumed, and she started slashing at the cocooned man. As soon as time was back to normal, the man started squirming around, she could hear his screams and saw the outline of his mouth through the webbing. "Hold still!" She shouted at him, trying her best to cut the web away without cutting him as well, "I'm going to save you!"

She didn't look back, but she knew the giant familiar was turning around. She heard it let out a loud hiss, then she ducked her head down in anticipation of the explosion.

A massive shockwave ripped through the room, Homura could feel the heat on her back. She, and the cocooned man were splashed with black goo. The man started shaking around more violently, screaming even louder. Overhead, she heard the screeching of thousands of small voices, she almost thought she could make out their words. ' _Faaaaatherr! FAAAAAATHER! Killlerr! Yoooouuu killll!"  
_ After a few more slashes with her knife, the web was weakened enough that the man's arms broke free. As soon as his hands were mobile again, he started ripping the webs away from his own face. "Oh god! Oh god! Help me!" He screamed as he fell out of the cocoon, landing on his hands and knees by Homura's feet.

"Come on! Get up!" Homura yelled, pulling him up by the collar and glancing overhead, seeing the eggs starting to crack open. "We have to run! RIGHT NOW!" There was still enough webbing stuck to the man that he would transfer the witch's consciousness if she tried to stop time. She raised a hand and slapped the man across the face. "Pull yourself together, damn it! And we might make it out of this alive!"

The blow seemed to have brought him back to his senses, and he looked up at her, actually seeing her for the first time. "H-Homura?" He said, adjusting his glasses with one hand.

She recognised his voice, and looked down at him with narrow eyes. "You're name is Kaiji." He nodded, and Homura gritted her teeth. _Of course, of course it would be him!_

She pulled him up to his feet. "Come on!" She said to him and pointed up. Kaiji looked up, and his mouth dropped open with terror. There were thousands of silk threads descending from the ceiling, each held a spider with sharp hissing fangs. "We have to run!"

Homura grabbed Kaiji by the hand, and they both bolted for the door.

* * *

 _Creeeeek… Creeeeeek…_

"This is it?" Hiroshi asked, as he stepped into the room. "I thought you were taking me to the exit."

The blue lipped girl looked back at him and smiled. Her lips moved as if she was talking, but not a sound came out… instead, Hiroshi could hear her voice in his head, as if she were speaking directly into his mind. " _You need to see something first."_

Hiroshi looked around. The room had the same wooden floors, and wallpaper on the walls, but there was also a window with a blue light coming through it. The top corners of the room were riddled with spider webs… and there was a creaking noise coming from somewhere… like squeaky wooden hinges. He looked around, and noticed something in the back corner.

A rocking chair, and a long legged woman sat atop it. Her face was veiled under a scarf, but Hiroshi could at least see her hands. Long, bony fingers, with gray wrinkled skin which clung tightly to the bone. "What… are…" The more Hiroshi stared at the old woman, the more he got the impression that something was off about her. She kind of looked human, but the proportions were all wrong. Her legs and arms were way too long, and her torso was tiny. Same thing with her fingers. Her hands were tiny, yet her fingers were far too long to belong to a human being. He looked closer, and realized the backs of her wrinkly knuckles had brown fur on them. When he looked up at the old womans face, he saw two red orbs peeking out from behind the veil, and he gulped.

Hiroshi looked back to the other girl, the one who had led him here. She was strange too, but she was a lot more pleasant to look at. Her skin was literally white as a sheet of paper. Hiroshi had seen girls with pale skin before, but this was just inhuman. Her hair was also white, but aside from her odd coloring, she was really cute. Her gold and blue tunic covered her breast, but left her navel exposed, and her bottoms only covered the bare minimum, leaving most of her legs unclothed. She wore boots of the same blue and gold color.

She pointed at something in the center of the room. Hiroshi looked down. It was a photo album. He looked back up at her, and saw her mouth move. Whenever she spoke, a cold chill ran through his body. " _I'm going back for your friends now."_

"Woah, hey, wait!" Hiroshi said, reaching after her. She turned as if she planned to walk right through the wall on the opposite side of the room.

She just turned and pointed at the photo album once again. Her blue lips pushed up into a smile.

Hiroshi understood she wanted him to look at the photo album, so he kneeled down infront of it. It looked to be made of blue leather, and there was a black imprint of a spider web on it. He flipped open the cover, and saw pictures from his childhood. They were from the summer he spent on his uncle's farm, when he spent every day playing with his cousin Haruka. A tear touched his eye, as the memories flooded back to him. He loved her, he really did, but he knew it was wrong. And after his uncle found out, he was never aloud to come back, and he never saw her again.

People knew, and he was ridiculed behind his back for years to come. For his one true love, and his greatest shame. He felt himself reliving those memories which brought him so much pain.

A tear fell inside the photo album. "Haruka…" He whispered. He looked back up at the blue lipped girl.

Half her body was inside the wall. The other half looked back at him. Where her face seemed warm and inviting before, it was now twisted into something more sinister. Her lips moved. " _You're disgusting."_

"W-what?" Then, she disappeared through the wall.

 _Creeeeeek..._

More tears fell into the open photo album as he leafed through.

 _Creeeeeek..._

A black shadow rose over him. The old lady in the rocking chair, but she had changed.

By the time he noticed, and turned to look at her, all he could do is scream, helpless to defend himself as sharp fangs bore down upon him.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Last part in 2-3 weeks.**

 **Also, to answer some questions about Perfect Crime. I have not abandoned it, and even started working on a new chapter. I have every intention of finishing that story, but put it on hold to focus on this one for a while. Once the next chapter of TSO is complete I plan to put more time into Perfect Crime. I also am planning to go back and do some editing on the first 5-10 chapters of Perfect Crime, since my writing style has improved a lot since then and I think I'll be able to improve its quality.**

 **Thanks again for reading!**

 **And a huge thanks to my beta readers, Axius27 and Danny. They are a big help and I'm sure their work has added to the quality of this story greatly!**

 **-Atomyst**


	17. Chapter 17

Sayaka stood out on the balcony of Mami's apartment, taking in some of the cool night air to calm her nerves. She heard the glass door behind her slide open, and she spun around, hoping to see Kyoko standing there; but, it was just Mami.

"Hey..." Sayaka said, a bit of disappointment showing on her face.

Mami smiled. "Are you doing ok? Sayaka?"

"Yeah, just nervous…" Sayaka said, with a sigh. "I really wish Kyoko would hurry up and get back here…" Then her face became stern and she balled her first. "I swear! If she ended up just staying the night at my house without saying anything to us because it's closer, or because she stopped for a snack or something like that! I'm going to be really angry with her! I-I mean, doesn't she know we're all waiting up for her? What the heck is taking her so long!"

Earlier that night, Leiko gave the good news that Kyoko had successfully exited the lab after her meeting with Homura, or at least that's what she found out through hacking the lab's personnel logs. That was four hours ago, and the fact that she hadn't made it back to the apartment yet was a bit disturbing, especially considering that Dr. Kaiji had already found out their secret.

Leiko had been keeping her eye on a nearby military base, as well as local law enforcement, and claimed there was nothing to worry about. Although, she also pointed out that if Kaiji had figured out her power, it was possible for them to keep themselves invisible to her simply by avoiding the use of any digital devices.

The three girls eventually agreed on a certain time when they would abandon Mami's apartment for the night until things cooled down; Right now, it was 10:30pm. If Kyoko didn't show up by 11:00, Leiko said she had an idea of a safe place they could go.

"What if they altered the logs to trick us into thinking Kyoko left?" Sayaka shook her head, "I mean, I don't think they know that we have been hacking them… but it's really strange that Kyoko isn't here yet. Right? And we certainly can't trust that Kaiji guy to keep our secret…"

Mami put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "I've known Kyoko for a long time, and if anyone can get out of a bad situation it's her… besides, I think we can trust what Leiko found is accurate. Based on the timing, it would seem odd that this Kaiji would have been able to get the message around to not use computers so quickly without Leiko noticing something's amiss. I'm sure Kyoko's on her way back, something probably just came up."

Then they heard a slight shuffling sound, and a metallic clink from the railing of the balcony right behind them. Sayaka whirled around. "Kyoko!"

Kyoko was perched up on the railing, holding onto it with her hands in between her feet. She was still wearing her Dr. Sakura glasses, and the tail of the oversized lab coat blew in the wind below her feet. "Somebody call for a doctor?" She asked, with a sharp grin on her face.

Sayaka ran over to wrap her arms around her. Considering how precariously Kyoko was balanced on the railing of the seventh story balcony, she quickly jumped down so she could meet Sayaka's embrace on solid ground.

"You jerk." Sayaka said, with her face hugged tightly against Kyoko's shoulder. "What? The front door wasn't dramatic enough for you?"

"Well, actually…"

Sayaka had expected some kind of clever retort from the redhead, but could hear the sudden seriousness in her voice. She released herself from the hug, and looked Kyoko in the eyes, seeing that there was indeed going to be some bad news on the horizon. "What happened?" Sayaka asked.

"After leaving the lab, they started following me. That's why I decided to use the balcony."

"You were followed?" Sayaka asked, suddenly looking really concerned.

Kyoko shrugged, "I managed to shake them pretty easily, but decided to make a few random passes through the city just to be sure. That's the same reason I used the balcony, just to be on the safe side…" She looked at Mami and Sayaka. "Listen… Don't freak out, but somehow one of the scientists figured out my identity."

"Actually, we already knew about that…" Sayaka said, grinning awkwardly.

Kyoko looked back and forth between the two of them. "W-what? But how could you know that?"

Mami sighed, "Why don't we all go inside? I suppose we should all bring each other up to speed."

They all went back inside and gathered at the table while they each explained what had happened to them throughout the day. Sayaka told most of their side of the story, with Leiko simply chiming in on a few missed details, and anxiously retreating back to her computer to click around from time to time.

Then Kyoko told them her side, about how Kaiji had confronted her in the hallway of the lab, but ultimately let her go. "Well, I think my enchantment magic had something to do with it…" Kyoko explained, "But it's hard to tell for sure."

"After leaving, you're sure you were being followed?" Leiko asked, clicking around on her computer. "You're not just being paranoid?"

"Come on, who do you think you're dealing with here?" Kyoko said, folding her arms and letting her face become hard. "I wouldn't just imagine something like that."

"Well, it's just odd that there are no traces of this in their network…" She stopped to think about it. "It must have been Dr. Kaiji acting alone." She concluded, "He must have tried continuing with his own investigation off the books. Not expecting that you would manage to shake them so easily…"

"But then why would he let her go in the first place?" Sayaka asked. "That doesn't make sense."

"Perhaps he hoped she would lead them back to the rest of us?" Mami suggested. "I trust Kyoko did a good enough job losing them, though, so we shouldn't have to worry about that."

"Yup, no worries there." Kyoko said with a hint of smug, "Anyway, it doesn't really matter now, does it? Our parts done, Kay Sakura is never entering the lab again, and tomorrow Homura will be sitting at this table drinking tea with us."

Leiko continued clicking around on the computer, not bothering to respond to that.

"We should still be on our guard." Mami said, "We can't afford to get too comfortable and make any foolish mistakes. The fact that your identity has been uncovered is still extremely troubling."

Kyoko shrugged. "Whatever, it's not like I use my identity in the first place anyway." She sliced and open palm through the air to personify the point. "I'm completely off the books."

"Well, the rest of us aren't." Leiko said, with a touch of annoyance in her voice, "So I'd appreciate you not being so careless about this."

"Who's being careless?" Kyoko said, "You should have seen the way I ditched those guys who were following me. They probably had no idea I was even on to them."

Sayaka had been clicking around on her phone through the conversation, texting Madoka. She looked up from the phone with a smile and said. "Well anyway, I just let Madoka know Kyoko made it back safely."

Leiko turned away from the computer and adjusted her glasses, an uncharacteristically positive expression on her face. "You can go ahead and tell her the plans started too." Leiko said, "An evacuation has just been ordered. Looks like Homura managed to make the GriefSeed hatch after all. Just… try to be somewhat vague with your messages. You know, just incase."

"Heh, sure thing." Sayaka said, as she got to work on typing out her next message. "You can just delete these messages from the phone records anyway, right?"

"Yeah…" Leiko said, turning back to her computer and typing around.

"Homura is still going to need to hide out for a while once she is out." Mami said. "Hopefully she realizes she can't just go spend the night at Madoka's once everything is said and done."

"Don't worry about it." Kyoko said, "Homura's smarter than that, you know. Well, knowing her, she probably _will_ go right to Madoka's, but they probably won't stay for long."

"What about Madoka's parents?" Sayaka said, "If the government does try coming after Madoka, wouldn't they end up getting caught up in it?"

"If that does happen, I can confuse their systems about where her house is actually located." Leiko explained. "That will give us plenty of time for us to get the Kaname's out on the run… I'll leave explaining what's going on to one of you, of course. Chances are, it won't even come to that. This place might be sanctioned by the government, but they tend to operate in secrecy. They would like to avoid something as public as a raid on a private... residence..." She continued to click around and started to seem troubled by something.

"Everything alright, Leiko?" Mami asked.

"Well… yeah." She said, adjusting her glasses but not looking away from the screen. "It's just strange… the elevator inside the lab hasn't been used yet… I'd think they'd be almost finished with their evacuation by now…"

* * *

Homura pulled Kaiji through the doorway by his wrist, then nudged him down the web littered hallway. "Keep running!" She said, "I'll catch up."

"Hang on, what are those things?" He said after only stumbling a few steps down the hall and turning back towards her. He adjusted his glasses, and his scientific eyes watched as Homura started pulling packs of C4 from under her shield. "And… how are you…"

Homura just turned her head to give him a dark expression as she started setting the bombs inside the frame of the doorway. "Just do as I say, and don't make me regret saving your life."

The images of the dead control room workers flashed through Kaiji's mind, and his face hardened. "You're the one who caused all of this."

"No, you did." She said after placing the fourth and final C4 pack. Then she started moving down the hall, and pushed Kaiji forward when she reached him. "You and everyone else who's involved with this goddamn lab caused this when you decided to imprison me." Annoyed that he still wasn't moving fast enough, she shouted "Run damn it! What the hell's wrong with you? We can talk later."

Kaiji glanced back one more time to see three of those spider creatures step around the C4 and into the hallway. He stumbled his first couple steps, then shook his head and forced himself to start moving at a quicker pace.

Everything felt so surreal to him as he tailed behind the dark haired girl who had been his captive less than an hour ago. His legs moved, but he didn't feel as if he was the one moving them. He might go as far as to describe this as an out of body experience. His body was moving of its own accord, while his mind observed everything as an outside spectator who was trying to piece together the plot of some complex sci-fi movie.

The visions he had when he was trapped inside that horrible place just moments ago still lingered with him. It had felt like he was being attacked by his own negative emotions, and being forced to remember all the worst moments of his life; confronted by all his fears, regrets, and tragic memories. From something as simple as missing his son's ballgame, to helping his brother alter evidence in order to cover for a dirty cop, and the ill-treatment of this very girl who now led him down the dark hallway.

Homura removed a small metal device from under her shield, and it only took Kaiji a moment to recognise it as a remote. "Keep your head down." She said, without so much as looking back at him. He did as she said, ducking his head under his shoulders while his feet still moved. Then, Homura pressed a button on the remote, and there was a loud explosion which shook the whole hallway. He felt himself pushed forward a step by the proceeding shockwave.

When it was over, he glanced back to see a few of those spider-like creatures managed to escape the blast and continued to chase them. Although, most of them _had_ been caught in the explosion, and he saw their small burning bodies lost in the flames.

He could hear a horrid screeching sound from the dying arachnids. It was so loud that it pierced his eardrums, but simultaneously whispered something to him on a much deeper level… filling his head with raw, hateful emotions. He closed his eyes tightly, and discovered that his eyelids were wet. "OH god…" He said to himself, under his breath. "What the hell is this place?"

Homura suddenly turned around, and Kaiji's feet shuffled to a stop. She used one hand to push him out of the way, and then produced a handgun from under her shield. She raised it, and started firing.

Her shots rang out in quick succession; the first two missed their targets, but then the third blew one of the creatures back. It took her only two shots to hit the second spider. Then Homura fired at the last spider four times, each shot missing and simply chipping away pieces of the wooden floor by its feet as it crawled closer and closer. She steadied her hand, and tried again, but still missed.

She clicked her teeth and tossed the gun away, then produced a knife from under her shield and kneeled down into an attack position. The creature was just a few meters away at this point, and would soon be in range to leap at her.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Homura used her teleportation. When she reappeared, she was kneeled down by the spider which was now impaled by her knife. She gripped the handle tightly, and twisted.. It hissed, and squirmed around as it started dissolving into black goo.

Kaiji looked down to the fire at the end of the hall, and saw more burning spiders emerging. The room they escaped from had thousands of them, and it seemed some were still trying to force their way out, but not making it very far.

Homura stood, and continued walking down the hall with that dark expression on her face. When she glanced Kaiji's way, he flinched and felt his heart jump, because for a moment she looked as if she could end up turning that knife on him.

"We should keep moving." She said, in a cold voice, and she returned the knife under her shield. As they continued down the hall, Kaiji couldn't help tilting his head back and forth to try and see behind that strange device on her arm which she had adamantly refused to let them experiment on. Homura noticed him through the corner of her eye, gave him another dark expression, and hid the shield at her side.

Kaiji straightened his posture. The faces of the dead control room workers were still in the back of his mind, and he knew that Homura must have been responsible for it somehow. Homura, and Kyoko Sakura as well. He wanted to confront her about it, but at the same time there were so many other questions he wanted to ask. He didn't know where to begin.

"What is this place?" He asked.

"If I were to compare you to an insect in an analogy, then this place is exactly as it appears. A spiderweb. The difference is, the spider who created it feeds off its victims minds rather than their physical bodies."

"That giant creature…" Kaiji said under his breath, remembering the horrific experience… "It was feeding… off of my mind?"

"Yes, the negative emotions of humans is what fuels them. Whatever it showed you, it would be wise for you not to dwell on it too much. That creature you encountered, however, was not _really_ the spider in this analogy. If you were to have been attacked by the true master of this realm, I doubt I would have been able to save you in time." She turned to him with narrow eyes. "Why are you still here in the first place? I told you to get out."

Kaiji stiffened, and his feet stopped moving. "It was you." His head bowed down slightly and his glasses caught a reflection which hid whatever expression may have been behind them. "You're the one who brought it here."

Homura looked back at him, her face not showing any guilt. "I did."

Kaiji's fist tightened, and he suddenly punched the wall. "Damn it! Two good people are dead because of you!"

Homura's eyes widened, and she took a step back, abandoning her controlled posture for the first time since this started. "What?" She seemed deep in thought for a moment, then she tensed up and said, "If you had just done what I said and evacuated!"

"We couldn't. Someone tampered with our security system, and… the two control room workers were found dead just a couple minutes after your warning. I'm assuming whoever did that worked in coalition with you."

Homura's eyes shifted. "No…" she whispered.

He thought about going further on to explain that he already knew Dr. Sakura's true identity. He held himself back from that however, for the simple fact that he was the _only_ person who knew, and therefore it might make Homura see him as even more of a liability. Like it or not, he was at her mercy right now, and he had to be carfull.

"These people…" Homura continued, "They were dead before the initial explosion? How did they die?"

"They were strangled to death. It looked like razor wire, because whatever was used to strangle them cut into their necks. I'm also assuming there was more than one attacker, since both of the two men were still in their seats, meaning they must have been killed at the same time. So… what do you know about this?"

"Nothing." Homura said. After a long moment, she continued walking. Kaiji followed her. "I acted alone tonight, and I was not the one to kill those men. It is unrelated to me."

"That's a bit of a huge coincidence, don't you think?" Kaiji said, keeping himself right over her shoulder as he continued the interrogation. "I can draw another conclusion by the simply fact you didn't do this sooner. You needed to be given something, didn't you? Therefore, it would make sense that you and Dr. Sakura, at least, had a prior relationship."

Homura scoffed. "That's ridiculous. She is a simple psychologist." She glanced back at him from over her shoulder, "One that _you_ hired, I'll remind you."

 _So, we're still not being honest with each other, huh?_ Kaiji thought.

"Although I'll agree it is an unlikely coincidence that your lab would be attacked on the same night I planned my escape. Therefore, I think there may be a third party involved. One that wanted to prevent me from escaping.."

"A third party? Wait… and they want to _prevent_ your escape?"

"The reason I wanted to give you time to evacuate wasn't simply for the sake of sparing your lives. I needed there to be no humans in this lab for my escape to have the best chance of succeeding. Whoever did this knew that was the case, and therefore shut down your control room to prevent the evacuation. Thus sabotaging my plan."

"But… who could have know all of that? And have the ability to put it together?" Kaiji thought about it. "The way you are talking about this, it's as if you know who it was. So, would you like to enlighten me?"

"There is someone, unrelated to you or your staff, who would benefit from me being locked up. But I do not know how he could have pulled this off. Aside from him, the only other people who know about me or would want to stop my escape are you and your coworkers." She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I think this third party being related to your staff is an unlikely scenario. Unless you people know a _lot_ more about me than I think you do."

They crossed through a threshold and found themselves in a lighter colored hallway without spiderwebs all over the walls. This hall was the type that Homura had started in, and it had those same strange pictures hanging on the walls. "I'd suggest you try your best not to take notice of any of these paintings."

Kaiji glanced at one of the paintings as they passed by, and he saw an image of a rocking chair with spiderwebs all over it. He looked down the hall which stretched as far as he could see, with a new threshold to cross ever thirty meters or so. Kaiji came to the same conclusion the group of guards did earlier, that this parallel of the lab would allow her to move around without being hindered by the steel doors. Thinking about it that way, it made perfect sense how all of this was related to an escape plan.

Kaiji was still bewildered that something like this was even possible. When they started the Subject One project, they knew they would be discovering things that humanity had never seen before, but this went far beyond his wildest expectations.

"So I take it we are technically still in the lab?" He asked, trying to confirm his theory.

"No, not really." Homura answered, and not offering much explanation beyond that. "Once I defeat the creature that controls this world, however, we will be returned to the lab…" She slowed down to a stop, Kaiji followed her cue and stopped as well, still a couple paces behind her. "Once this is all over, we could end up popping up in any area of the lab. The reason I brought this creature here, is so I'd have a chance to make it to the elevator room and escape. However, if that's not how things turn out, and we end up somewhere I can't escape from. Like another test room. What do you think is going to happen to me?"

"Well…" Kaiji didn't know how to answer. He had hoped getting rid of Endou would give himself more control over how Homura was treated, and he could make things better for her. After tonight though, he wouldn't have much room for argument about any extra security measures which would be needed to keep her under control. Those extra security measures would mean less freedom for her, and if glazadrine were to be approved, Homura would be put into a state where she couldn't even think about escape; she wouldn't be able to think about much of anything at all.

"That drug that was put into my food… I imagine I had only gotten a small dose, especially since I managed to spit most of it up again. That was done to me when I was only seen as a moderate threat. Now that it's clear how high my threat level actually is…"

They crossed another threshold and found themselves with a wall directly in front of them. The hall split in two different direction; they could either go left or right.

She still had her SoulGem hidden under her clothing, embedded into her chest, hoping to at least keep that a secret from the scientist. She conferred with it, feeling for the witches presence, then pointed down the right path, and continued to lead the way.

"Even that small dose of the drug has severely hampered me. Remember those spiders I was shooting at earlier? Normally, I wouldn't have needed to waste a single bullet, but now I'm sluggish. Unfocused. I can only imagine what a full dose of the drug would do to me."

"It won't turn you into a vegetable. If that's what you are thinking." Kaiji didn't point out that something like that would completely defeat the purpose of them taking her here in the first place.

"Then what does it do?" Homura asked.

Kaiji cleared his throat, and explained. "The sluggishness you now feel is a temporary side effect of your body having not adjusted to the new balance of chemicals. After a few weeks on the drug, that side effect would ware off, and your precision and motor functions would no longer be impeded. However, the permanent effect is… well, the easiest way to describe it is you would permanently be dreaming."

Homura frowned, and Kaiji felt his voice faltered slightly, but he continued. "When in a cycle of sleep, the brain has a different way of allocating memory. The drug takes advantage of this natural state but applies it to when you are actually conscious. Generally, the rearrangement of short term and long term memory has been shown to make the user more… programmable. It also alters the production of adrenaline and hormones to make its user docile… On top of that, it's highly addictive..." _...All in all, it's the perfect mind control drug._

Homura was quiet for a moment, as she thought it over, then said "So basically, it would turn me into a puppet. Without memories, I really wouldn't even be myself anymore. Would I?" Kaiji didn't respond. Homura's fist tightened. "You monsters. How could you even think of doing that to someone?"

"No." Kaiji said, "That was never the plan. For the most part, our staff recognises that the drug is inhumane and we had no intentions of using it on you. Dr. Endou went outside his authority and forced it on you without the consent of the rest of our staff. I didn't even know about it."

"I don't really know if I believe you… but even if that is true; now that my true power has been shown, chances are your staff _will_ consent to its use. Won't they?" She clicked her teeth and flung her hair to the side. "You're standing there acting as if you hold some kind of moral high ground over them, but from what I can tell, you are not actually any different."

"I…" Kaiji's eyes shifted away, "I at least wanted to treat you humanly, and make things comfortable for you here."

"You really are a naive fool. Aren't you?" Homura said, dryly. Kaiji looked like he wanted to get defencive, but his eyes ended up just sinking away. "There is nothing humane about taking an innocent person and locking her in a cage for the rest of her life. You can decorate it any way you like, but a cage is still a cage. To tell you the truth, I think I prefer Endou over you, because he at least isn't in denial about the fact that he is a monster."

"That's… not true." Kaiji said defensively, "We're not monsters. We are scientists. Our goal is to study, to learn things, advance our knowledge of the world. Our research could discover things that could benefit all of mankind!"

"So the ends justifies the means? What we're talking about here, is human experimentation. Unless of course you don't see me as human. That would explain why you don't have any qualms about putting me in a cage. So which is it?"

"That's…" Kaiji wanted to deny it, but he couldn't think of anything else to say. Some part of him knew that she was right, but how could he admit that? He dedicated his life to this. His research was his life! If science was wrong, then what was the meaning of his existence? "Thats…"

"Whatever, if you wish to delude yourself I won't stop you. However, you should understand now that failure is not an option for me. The way you described the drug, if I'm still trapped here when all this is over, it would be as good as death for me."

Homura sounded like she still had more to say, but then they heard something. There was a series of loud pops echoing through the halls. Gunshots. "You said there were still guards here?" Homura asked.

Kaiji nodded.

Homura put her hand on her shield and turned to look at him. "I'll be right back."

* * *

Kotaro quickly grabbed Murakami by the shoulder and pulled him back up to his feet. Shots rang out from just behind them as Furuhata unloaded his weapon into the horde of spiders crawling out of the hole in the wall.

"Come on!" Kotaro shouted at Murakami who was stuck just staring with a shocked expression on his face.

"Right!" Murakami shook himself out of it and tried raising his own gun into position. The motion caused him to grunt and wince forward because of the wound on his shoulder from where Hiroshi had shot him. "Damn it!" He cursed, letting the rifle go limp in his grasp, and using his good hand to nurse the wound.

Kotaro was quick to raise his own gun, and joined Furuhata in firing at the creatures. The three of them backed away slowly as shot after shot rang out and echoed down the halls.

"They keep coming." Furuhata said, dropping the spent magazine from his rifle, and reaching for the spare clipped to the back of his belt. "This is useless." His skilled hands had the weapon reloaded in a matter of seconds. However, they were only provided with one spare magazine and therefore this round of bullets would be his last.

Kotaro stared down the sights of his own weapon, and calmly expended a single shot as he shifted from one spider to the next, prioritizing the ones that were the closest. Each shot hit its mark and would leave the creatures hissing and rolling over onto their back.

The two of them were doing a good enough job keeping the spiders back, but more were appearing out of the hole as quickly as they were able to put them down.

"How about making a run for it?" Kotaro suggested, as he continued to focus on his shots. His voice was incredibly stable considering the situation.

"Seems we have no choice." Furuhata agreed, "Come on." And with that, he turned and led the way up the north path which they had originally decided on.

Murakami started following Furuhata right away, but Kotaro waited a moment to get a few extra shots off. Murakami glanced back at him, and noted how skillfully each shot was executed: he never wasted a single bullet. Furuhata had taken about twice the number of shots as Kotaro, and probably only hit about half as many targets.

Kotaro, feeling satisfied he had driven the wave back far enough, turned on his heels and followed after his two companions. He quickly slid the Magazine out from under his rifle to check the bullets: His clip was about halfway full, and he still had a spare magazine holstered in his belt.

"Murakami." Furuhata started to ask as they ran. "How's your wound?"

"Not life threatening." He said, with a bit of a rough voice. "I got lucky with where the bullet hit, so I should be ok, but I can't raise my arm at all. It's impossible for me to shoot."

"Then remove the magazine and leave the gun on the ground. No need to let it slow you down, and we'll need the extra ammo."

Murakami was delayed in his response, but realized that Furuhata's logic was correct. "Right." He said, then began working at unloading his own weapon. It only took a few seconds, and once it was done, he passed the magazine off to Furuhata. He then retrieved his spare magazine from its holster and handed it out to Kotaro.

"No need." Kotaro said, "Let Furuhata have the extras." He turned and winked, "I'm a much better shot."

"Cocky as ever, huh?" Murakami grinned, "Even in this situation." He held the magazine out to Furuhata instead.

Furuhata accept the spare with an affirmative grunt, and fixed it into his belt. "You do seem rather calm about this whole situation, Kotaro."

"You know what?" Kotaro laughed. "Maybe this just makes me screwed up in the head, but I don't really mind this."

Furuhata glanced over to him with a raised eyebrow as the three continued running down the hall.

Kotaro continued. "I mean, how many chances like this do you get to show off your skills like this? I'm an ace with shooting these things, but I barely ever get a chance to put it to the test." Kotaro glanced over to Murakami, and Murakami could see something peculiar in his eyes. His pupils were dilated to pinpoints, and it was clear he was extremely focused, yet somehow he just couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "Right now, I'm having the time of my life. Don't worry guys, we are definitely getting out of this alive. There's no way I'm getting taken out by a bunch of overgrown bugs!"

Kotaro glanced back as another fork in the hallway came into view. Luckily, the spider creatures weren't too fast, and it would be easy to outrun them as long as they kept moving.

"What about Hiroshi?" Murakami asked. "I mean, what the hell was that? It's like he was a completely different person all of a sudden."

"I have no idea." Kotaro answered, "But…" His voice trailed off. He wanted to say something about the pictures on the walls. Specifically, the picture of a swimming pool that he had found himself staring at before Hiroshi turned on them. Once he started staring at it, it felt like something pulling him in. He became lost in thought, remembering a tragic day from his childhood. It would be a difficult sensation to put into words, but if his companions hadn't distracted him, he doubted he would have been able to look away.

"Whatever the case." Furuhata said, "We'll have to accept him as a casualty. If we do see him again, and if he is armed, I'm afraid we'll have no choice but to take him out."

"Take him out?" Murakami asked, almost shocked by the decision. "You're kidding me, right?"

"No…" Kotaro said, his voice becoming dark. "Furuhata's right. We'll give him a chance to drop his weapon of course, but right now he's unpredictable. He already fired at us once, and seriously injured you. We can't let that happen again, it could mean one of our lives next time."

Murakami didn't seem to want to agree with it, but he supposed he couldn't argue. "Ok, I guess you're right."

They slowed as they reached the fork. This time, there were only two paths, and they each split off in a 45 degree angle. This kind of layout didn't exist anywhere in the lab, and they finally knew for certain that they were indeed no longer in the lab.

"What now?" Murakami asked, as all three slowed to a stop, quickly considering the two options.

Kotaro turned around and readied his weapon, focusing his sights down the hall at the group of spiders that were coming after them. "Whatever, just hurry up and make a decision." He said, lining up the sights on the first of his targets. "I don't want to waste too much ammo if I don't have to."

"The paths are identical." Furuhata said, and started moving down the left path. "Let's just pick one." Indeed, both paths just continued on in a never ending corridor. Each with wooden floors, flower wallpaper, and pictures hanging on the walls.

"Wait." Murakami said, looking down the right path. He felt a cool breeze pass over him, as if he were in front of an air conditioner. Except, as the air brushed over his body he could almost feel it pulling at him. He looked down at his hand and felt something tugging on his wrist. He looked closely, and could see a slight indent in his skin as if a very thin thread was wrapped around his wrist. ' _This way…'_

"Let's go this way instead." Murakami said, quickly.

Kotaro sighed as he let a shot burst out from his gun which hit it's target cleanly. He then focused on the next one which was still just a little further away. _Twenty meters_ , he decided. He would shoot as soon as they come within twenty meters. "Come on, decision please."

"It doesn't matter, right?" Murakami said again. "So let's go this way."

"Sounds good to me." Kotaro said, firing off two more shots, and killing two more spiders. "All I know is, standing right here is currently the worst possible option."

"No, stop." Furuhata said, his voice becoming stern. He put a hand on Murakami's shoulder and turned him around forcefully, then looked deep into his eyes. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Seriously guys!" Kotaro said, "Picking off these stragglers is no problem, but we don't want to waste our ammo taking out the whole group! We'll need everything we got if we run into more of these things!"

"I'm feeling fine." Murakami said, knocking Furuhata's hand away from his shoulder. "So like Kotaro said, quit wasting time. Let's go."

Furuhata's eyes narrowed. "If the paths truly don't matter, let's go with the one I've chosen."

"Furuhata," Kotaro started, "I respect the confidence, but nows not really the best time for..."

"Kotaro." Furuhata said, "Isn't Murakami sounding a bit like Hiroshi right now?"

Kotaro's eye's widened as he fired another shot, this one being a rare miss. He quickly corrected his aim and took the spider out with the second shot, then fired off two more shots at two more spiders. "Alrighty." He agreed, and quickly turned on his heels. "Left it is."

He didn't want to admit it, but there was a chance Furuhata was right. Hadn't Hiroshi said something along the lines of, ' _She said she'll come back for the rest of you'?_ Kotaro didn't know who ' _she'_ was, but if ' _she'_ was responsible for Hiroshi freaking out on them, Kotaro didn't want to take any chances where ' _she'_ was concerned.

He figured the best way to know for sure would be to challenge Murakami on the issue. Hiroshi was violently adamant about going his own way, and if Murakami has the same ailment then it would become obvious right away. Kotaro silently prayed that this would not be the case as he turned toward the left path, keeping note of Murakami's taser through the corner of his eye.

"Guys seriously!" Murakami said, refusing to follow them. "We need to go this way! It's dangerous."

"How could you possibly know the difference?" Furuhata challenged him.

"There's a…" He paused and he became distracted. Then he nodded slowly, and looked as if he were trying to listen closely to something that was hard to hear. "There's some kind of witch or something down there… if we go this way instead…"

"A witch?" Furuhata asked.

"I'll take my chances." Kotaro said, shooting him a grin. "I dated a witch once. I've got experience dealing with cold bitches. Now hurry up and come along, Murakami, before we have to drag you." Kotaro glanced down the hall at the spiders. "Those things are getting closer, I'm not going to wait much longer for you."

Murakami looked between Kotaro and Furuhata. They both had weapons, and Murakami himself was currently unarmed. However, he knew he had to take the left path, and he knew that they were going to try and stop him. "Ok." He said, his voice toneless. His fingers slowly reached for the taser holstered at his side. "Have it your way, let's take the left path."

"Alright then." Kotaro turned his back on Murakami and started heading down the left path. After taking one step and lifting his leg for the second, he suddenly spun around on his heel. Murakami already had his taser out of it's holster and pointing at him, but flinched in surprise at how quickly Kotaro moved.

By the time Murakami fired the taser, Kotaro was already charging at him. He gripped his gun with one hand on the barrel and the other on the handle, using it to bat the electrical charged taser wires out of the air. "Sorry 'bout this." Kotaro said with a grin as he shifted the angle of his weapon so the barrel faced the floor, and then plowed forward and drove the blunt end into the side of Murakami's face. He caught him right in the _sweet spot_ under the ear, resulting in an instant knockout.

Furuhata had produced his own taser and circled around, keeping it focused on the unconscious Murakami as he fell to the floor. "Kotaro." Furuhata said, nodding his head towards the spiders. There were at least five within ten meters of them now, and the larger part of the group was about twenty meters away.

"Pick Murakami up and start moving, I'll drive the wave back as far as I can then follow right after you." Without wasting another second, Kotaro had his sights trained on the spiders and started shifting from one to another, firing a single bullet with each pass of his rifle.

Furuhata strapped his gun around his back, and then bent down to pick up Murakami. His eyes were closed, and he was bleeding from the gash on the side of his head. Furuhata noted a spiderweb tattoo on his neck which he knew for a fact was never there before. He remembered Hiroshi had the same kind of tattoo on his neck when he started freaking out. Furuhata didn't know what was going on here, but it made him nervous, because they had no explanation for what exactly these tattoos were and what it meant.

At least six shots rang out from Kotaro's gun in quick succession as Furuhata got his hands under Murakami's arms to hoist him up.

Then, all of a sudden, Murakami's eyes shot open and his hand darted at Furuhata's neck. Furuhata grunted as Murakami's hand wrapped around his throat and started squeezed with incredible force.

He coughed and grabbed Murakami by the wrist with both hands, trying to force his hand away. Furuhata had much more upper body strength than Murakami so it _should_ have been easy, but Murakami's grip was so tight it was like trying to bend a steel girder.

"Furuhata!?" Kotaro exclaimed, only briefly glancing back at the struggle, and then refocusing on the task at hand. _Crap, crap, CRAP!_ "Your taser! Use your taser!" He shouted out as he continued to pick off the spiders.

Furuhata, still being choked and trying to force air into his lungs reached for his belt and unfastened the taser. Murakami slowly raised himself to a stand, his hand not loosening it's inhuman grip for even a second. Furuhata grasped the taser tightly and then jammed it into the side of Murakami's neck and pulled the trigger.

The taser buzzed, and Murakami's face scrunched up as the muscles in his neck contorted, but his grip didn't loosen. Furuhata pushed the taser into his neck even harder, but it made no difference. It's normal for grip to remain tight when being tasered, since the electric shock contracts the muscles, but Murakami should have lost control of his body and his legs should have given out, making it easy for Furuhata to shake him off. This wasn't happening, however.

Murakami showed some discomfort in his face, but his composure remained strong. It was impossible! This taser was nearly three times more powerful than the ordinary kind, because it was meant to be used to subdue Subject One if she got out of hand. There's no way an ordinary person could still stand through it the way Murakami was now!

Kotaro was vaguely keeping track of the struggle through the corner of his eye, but the focus of his attention was on the spiders, there were too many of them and if he stopped firing they would be on him in a matter of seconds.

How many bullets did he have left in this clip? He wasn't sure, but the rate at which the spiders were coming now, he wouldn't have time to reload. He could hear them hissing and baring their fangs which would be downed out with each pull of the trigger letting loose a deafening crack down the hallway.

"Damn it!" He screamed.

Knowing his ammo would be out soon, he realized he had no choice. He turned around, and aimed at Murakami.

"MURAKAMI!"

He pulled the trigger, but closed his eyes tightly as soon as he heard the shot ring out. He didn't want to see the aftermath of what he had done. "Damn it!" He cursed, tears pushing through his closed eyes.

Although this only lasted a moment, to him it felt much longer. Then, the survival instincts in the back of his head reminded him of the horde of spiders at his back, and the fact that they would be clawing into him at any moment if he didn't move. He prepared himself to grab Furuhata and make a run for it.

When his eyes opened, he gasped. There was someone new standing there between himself and Murakami… a girl!

"Miss. Akemi?" He said, his mouth dropping open. She had just appeared out of nowhere! Not only that, she was holding her hand out with the bullet Kotaro had just fired pinched between her thumb and forefinger. She flicked it away, then spun around and touched her fingers to the spiderweb tattoo on Murakami's neck. There was a bright flash of light, and all of a sudden Murakami's legs gave out from under himself, his grip loosened, and his body fell limp to the ground.

Furuhata backed away, gasping and trying to regain his breath. He was just a few short moments away from unconsciousness himself, after having his breathing cut off, but now he was going to be fine.

Homura walked towards Kotaro with quick steps, her intense eyes revealing no emotions as she approached him. She grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him behind herself, and then she disappeared. Kotaro's first instinct was to ready his gun, seeing that the spiders were just a couple meters away from him now. He could have shot a few and then made a run for it, but that would require leaving Murakami behind to be devoured by the horde. None of that was necessary, though.

A moment later there was a series of explosions throughout the entire hallway which engulfed almost the entire horde of spiders in flames. Kotaro jumped back, and he and Furuhata both put their hands over their ears and stared in disbelief as one explosion after another rang throughout the hallways. Each blast was preceded by a shockwave which threatened to force them back a step.

When it was over, Homura reappeared, this time, Dr. Kaiji was with her. He fell to the ground, landing on his hands and knees, as the heels of Homura's shoes touched down lightly with a small clink.

"D-Doctor?" Kotaro blurted out.

Furuhata unslung his gun from behind his back, and quickly aimed its sights on Homura.

"Stop!" Kaiji shouted, scrambling back to his feet. "Hold your fire!" And he quickly got between Homura and Furuhata. "Listen, she saved my life." He took a quick glance around, noting the burned creatures and the unconscious guard who he didn't know the name of. "And from the looks of things, she just saved your lives as well."

Homura looked past Kaiji and stared down the guard who still had his gun aimed in her general direction. She flipped her hair back and proceeded to walk past the two of them. "Wait a second!" Furuhata said, turning his gun with her movement. Her head tilted towards him and she narrowed her eyes. Her lips pierced down into an unamused frown.

Next thing he knew, she had disappeared and reappeared in the threshold of the left hallway. She was holding something in her hand and casually tossing it up into the air and catching it again. It took Furuhata a moment to realize it was a bullet clip. He looked down to see the one attached to his own gun had disappeared, a _nd_ the safety pin had been flipped on.

"Don't do anything stupid, please." Homura said to him, "I'll say to you what I told Kaiji. Be grateful that I am saving your lives, and do as I say. Now… which of the two of you is the better shot?" She glanced back towards Kotaro, "Based on the number of dead familiars I saw, I'm guessing it would be you."

Familiars? Kotaro realized she could only be talking about the spiders. "Well, yeah. That would be me."

"Then Kaiji and the other one here should carry your unconscious friend. I don't necessarily need an extra gun helping me, but at the same time it can't hurt. However, I will ask that both of you drop your tasers on the ground. Is that alright?" When Kotaro didn't respond right away she looked directly at him and said. "I can take it away myself easily enough, you know."

Kotaro grinned. Cool and intense, that's how he had described her, and she was certainly living up to it. He might of said she wasn't his type, but if she was a few years older she certainly would be. "Alright then, Miss. Akemi." He said as he unclipped his taser and let it fall to the ground. "Am I still suppose to call you Miss. Akemi, or can we switch to personal names now?"

Homura's position changed slightly, simultaneous with the two tasers on the ground exploding into small fragments.

Her eyes narrowed. "Call me whatever you wish. We won't be seeing each other again after tonight anyway." And with that she started moving down the right path. "I'm going to go confront the creature which controls this place. It's dangerous, but staying by my side is still the safest place for any of you. I suggest that's what you do, but I will not force you."

* * *

Junko yawned as she stepped out into the dark hallway, scratching her belly through her nightgown. She looked down the hall and noticed the light under Madoka's door was still on. She frowned, thinking ' _what's that girl doing now?'_ It was already past midnight, it was odd for Madoka to still be awake at this time.

Madoka really had been worrying her lately. Something had clearly been bothering her over the last few weeks, but she's been completely quiet about it. It was so unlike her. Madoka use to come to her with every little thing that happened in her day, but lately Junko has had almost no insight into her daughter's life.

She sighed and walked over to Madoka's room, then tapped on her door and asked, "Madoka?"

"Come in." Madoka's voice responded. Junko entered and saw her sitting up in her bed with her phone in her hand, surrounded by stuffed animals.

"So you _are_ awake." Junko said, coming in to sit next to her. "I thought you might have fallen asleep with the light on."

"No… Guess I'm just not really feeling sleepy yet." Madoka said, forcing a smile. It was clear something was on her mind. It's the same way she has been all month.

"So, what are you doing anyway?" Junko asked, glancing at the phone in Madoka's hands.

"I was just talking with Sayaka." Madoka said.

"Oh, about what?"

"Um…" Her eyes shifted for a moment before responding. "Something about Kyoko."

Junko frowned at the vague answer.

She had met Kyoko a few times, and wasn't too fond of her colorful vocabulary, but in spite of that, Junko she still liked her. She seemed like a nice and _mostly_ honest girl... just a little misguided. She heard through Madoka that Kyoko had lost her family a couple years ago, so it wasn't really any wonder that she was a bit rough around the edges.

"Well anyway," Junko said, "Since neither of us can sleep, want to get a cup of tea in the kitchen?"

Madoka glanced at her phone, then back to her mom and smiled. "Sure, that sounds good."

Junko still didn't have any answers to what had happened to Homura, or why Madoka had been acting so strangely lately, but she had a feeling the two were connected. At first Junko thought that maybe they had broken up, and Madoka was having a hard time talking about it, but that didn't seem quite right. Firstly, they seemed way too close for that to be the case, it wouldn't make sense for such a sudden shift out of nowhere. Secondly, if it was a breakup, it would be more obvious and Madoka wouldn't be going on as if they _were_ still together. Maybe Madoka could be a tad naive at times, but she wasn't the type to be in denial about a breakup.

Still, Junko wanted to get to the bottom of whatever it was, but any attempts to directly ask about Homura had been more or less brushed off. So, she tried coming at it with a different approach. "So how have Sayaka and Kyoko been doing lately anyway?"

"Fine. They were having some troubles when Sayaka's parents found out about them, but that seems to have resolved." Madoka laughed.

Junko remembered, Sayaka's parents certainly did NOT take well to the idea of Sayaka having a _girlfriend_. It's not that her parents were necessarily bad people, they were just the type to be stuck in their ways, and had trouble adjusting to anything that was outside of the ordinary. Unfortunately, it had gotten bad enough that Sayaka and Kyoko left their house and came to stay here for a couple days

During those couple days, Junko got to know Kyoko a little better and was able to find that she did like her. She realized Kyoko was aware of her speaking, and made an honest attempt to avoid slang words, but had a little trouble with breaking the habit. The roughness that Kyoko showed was really only on the surface, and it didn't take Junko long to see the girl underneath that rough exterior was actually a kind and gentle soul.

Sayaka's parents must have realized that as well, and also realized the error of their ways, because in the end they ended up being ok with Kyoko staying at their house. They tended to be away on business a lot anyway, and it was better for Sayaka to not be alone at home all the time.

"I remember when they came here those couple days. Those two were practically glued together. Are they still like that?" Junko laughed.

Madoka returned the laughter. "Yeah, they never stop bickering with eachother, but its really cute. I'm glad, because I can tell she's making Sayaka really happy too…" From what Junko understood, Sayaka had gotten a pretty bad episode of depression after having her heart broken by Kyosuke. Madoka had seemed really worried about it at the time, but it seemed that whole situation had resolved itself in the end.

That led Junko to thinking about Homura again, and since she had finally gotten Madoka talking, she decided to come right out with it. "So, how's Homura been? I haven't seen her in a while."

"Oh… Um… well…" Madoka frowned and stared at her teacup. This was actually an improvement, because before whenever Junko asked about Homura, Madoka would instantly start trying to assure her that everything was fine, even though it was obvious that was not the case. Now it seemed Madoka was finally closer to being able to talk about whatever it was.

"Is she alright?" Junko asked, softly.

"It's… well…"

Junko smiled, "Madoka, you know you can tell me anything, right?" She had her suspicions before, but now she was convinced there really was something going on with Homura. "Is she in trouble?"

Madoka's frown became somewhat more placid as she gathered her thoughts. "Well… Yes, but it's not that she did anything wrong." She explained.

"Madoka…" Junko said softly, "I'm worried. It's not like you not to talk to me about things."

Madoka instantly shook her head. "No mama, I don't want you to worry… it's just that…Well, it's hard to say, because I'm not sure it's something I can really talk about, but at the same time I don't want to lie to you."

"I see… well, where is she?"

"Actually…" Madoka managed to put on a smile again, and Junko could see that it was genuine. "She is going to be back very soon, probably even tomorrow… um, maybe she will be able to tell you about it herself then…"

"Oh." Junko returned the smile, "Well that's good to hear. So she really is ok?"

Madoka nodded. "Yeah, she wasn't for a little while… but it's going to be over soon. So, she really is going to be ok now!"

"Well, I still don't know what it is we are talking about exactly." Junko laughed, "But I do know Homura is a strong girl. So I think you're right, whatever it is I'm sure she can deal with it."

Madoka nodded in agreement, and their conversation hit a lull. The silence was broken after a moment by Madoka letting out a loud yawn and putting her hand over her mouth.

"Well, it is pretty late." Junko smiled, "Why don't we get to bed now?"

"Heh, yeah." Madoka said as she finished the last of her tea and got up from the table.

Junko sighed. At least she'd gotten somewhere this time, but it was clear that Madoka wasn't going to give her all the details. Still, the news that Homura was coming by tomorrow was reassuring. Homura was often silent and unforthcoming with information, but she was a practical girl who would know if she was in over her head. Whatever it was that Homura had gotten mixed up in, the answers could wait until tomorrow.

* * *

Homura was sure to keep Kotaro in her peripheral vision at all times. Her real worry would have been their tasers, which she had destroyed. The tasers were designed specifically to be used against her, and their amplified wattage was enough to contort her muscles and make it impossible for her to move or concentrate enough to use magic. Not to mention it hurt… _really_ badly.

She wasn't as worried about a gunshot wound, because it could be easily healed, but getting shot still hurt pretty badly as well, and she preferred avoiding fleshwounds when she could. She didn't think Kotaro would be foolish enough to try anything like that, however.

The other guard, whose name she picked up was Furuhata, might have been more of a concern, but he was currently piggy backing the other unconscious guard. Kaiji carried Furuhata's gun for him, though admitted he would have no idea how to use it himself.

"So this witch thing." Kotaro said, following just a couple paces behind Homura. "We think it caught our friend Hiroshi." He was trying to avoid right out asking if Hiroshi was still alive or not.

Homura seemed to understand what the question was. "If that's the case, then he is likely dead." She answered factually, without much emotion in her voice.

"I see." Kotaro said. He didn't really know Hiroshi all that well. They were coworkers for a while, and they use to joke around in the break room a lot, but they couldn't exactly be considered close friends. Still, it was rough news to hear. Now wasn't the time for grief, however. He had a gun in his arms and he was heading for a battlefield, so he had to stay focused. "How did it get here anyway?" He asked.

Homura didn't answer right away, but Kotaro noticed Kaiji's posture shift through the corner of his eyes. It was clear that Kaiji, at least, knew the answer. Finally, Homura did answer. "I summoned it. Actually, it was only a matter of time before one came here anyway. Really, all I did was speed up the process. I won't go into details, but I'll just say it was inevitable that this would happen the moment you people locked me up. I tried to at least give you all a chance to evacuate the lab before it happened… but in the end, that didn't work out."

Furuhata spoke up with a cold voice. "So you're saying you did everything in your power to prevent this, but it just didn't work out? Huh? Sorry, but I have a hard time believing that. If you knew this was going to happen, you could have said something weeks ago, couldn't you have? That way our team may have been able to prepare more properly."

"I was kidnapped and imprisoned here against my will. I didn't want any of this. Besides, this witch is going to be the ticket to my escape. How smart would it have been for me to tell my jailors about the _one_ thing that could lead to my escape? Just be grateful I'm trying to save your lives now. I don't need to do this… really, I only _need_ one of you." She glanced backwards for just a moment, and it was clear she was referring to Kaiji.

"So, we're hostages then?" Furuhata said.

"I tried using my psychologist as a hostage before, but that didn't work. They were perfectly willing to sacrifice her to keep me locked up. It would probably be the same for you prison guards, I'm really only saving the three of you out of the kindness of my own heart. Kaiji on the other hand." She grinned, "With him, it seems my kind heart paid off for me by giving me a slightly more valuable bargaining chip. If we're lucky, though. None of that will be necessary."

"And how do we know you aren't just stringing us along?" Furuhata said, "Hiroshi said ' _she_ would come back for us'. How do we know you are not who he was referring to and this is just an elaborate trap?"

"Feeding you to the witch would offer me no benefit. In fact, it would be just the opposite."

"How do we know that though?" Furuhata said, "We don't know anything about this. Like I said, you could just be stringing us along. Sorry, but I'm having a hard time believing you are sparing us just _out of the kindness of your heart,_ as you put it."

"In truth, I really _don't_ give a damn what happens to you. However, if I were to just let you die… well, there's someone who would have a hard time forgiving me for that if she ever found out. But to answer your question. You don't know. So you're just going to have to trust me, I guess."

Kaiji thought about what she said, and then asked. "Madoka Kaname?"

Homura stopped moving so suddenly that Kotaro ended up walking a few paces ahead of her before stopping himself. He turned to ask what was wrong, and could see a darkness had come over her face that went far beyond _cool and intense_. He instinctively shifted his feet into a more fire ready position, and his hands tightened their grip on his weapon.

In the blink of an eye, Homura disappeared, and reappeared using one hand to slam Kaiji against a wall. Her other hand held a pistol, and she jammed the barrel into his neck. "Homura!" Kotaro shouted, turning to point his gun at her. In turning, he realized it felt lighter. He looked down and saw that the clip had been removed. He reached for the spare magazine clipped to his belt, and found that was also missing. "Woah… ok now." Kotaro said calmly, "Just relax."

To Kaiji's credit, he didn't flinch. He didn't try to resist her attack, but he stared right back into her dark eyes bravely. She may have been a fourteen year old girl, and half his size, but it still took a certain kind of person to maintain their composure with a gun pressed against their neck.

"How do you know that name?" Homura said, slowly, as she lifted her thumb and pulled the hammer back on her gun.

"We've been aware of Madoka Kaname even before actually capturing you." Kaiji said to her. There was not so much as a hint of a stutter in his voice, and Kotaro found himself respecting him for that. "We ultimately deemed that she was no interest to us, and we have completely left her alone. You mentioned a girlfriend to Dr. Sakura. I just assumed..."

Homura pushed the gun into his neck even harder, forcing him to cough, but he maintained his eye contact.

"Listen, Homura." Kotaro started, "With the hammer back like that, that things a hair trigger… if you're not carfull..."

Homura ignored him and continued to speak to Kaiji. "There's something else you are not telling me." She spoke slowly. "You jumped to that conclusion far too easily."

Kaiji's eyes shifted slightly. "When you're sleeping." He said, swallowing. "You often say her name in your sleep… Then, when you mentioned a girlfriend to Kay… I assumed…"

Kotaro felt his respect for Kaiji waivering. Homura was being watched while she slept? She's only a teenager, and a girl! Something about that didn't quite sit right with his chivalrous nature. It seemed to be crossing the line just a bit. He quickly reaffirmed himself. She may have every right to be angry at her privacy being violated like that, but Dr. Kaiji still didn't deserve to die over it.

Homura's eyes narrowed even further. She stared at him hard, as if trying to look through a lie. When Kotaro looked at Kaiji, he could see it too… There was something else the doctor wasn't saying.

"You won't shoot." Kaiji said, calmly, still refusing to fold under her intense stare. "I'm your bargaining chip, remember? Besides, I don't think murdering in cold blood just for the sake of making a point is your style."

"Do you really want to test me on that?" Homura asked, tilting her head to the side very slightly.

"I'm willing to take the gamble."

They continued to stare eachother down for what felt like a long moment. Furuhata, piggybacking an unconscious guard, was helpless to do anything but watch. Maybe if he was fast enough, he could knock her out before she fired. Then, Homura pulled the gun away from his neck, and they both sighed with relief.

"You'd best just forget that name. If I find out that anyone so much as looks her name up in a phonebook, I'm going to come back. I will kill everyone involved with this lab, and I will destroy everything you personally hold dear. Do you understand that? _Doctor_ Kaiji." Kaiji didn't say anything, but nodded his head in understanding. "Good."

Homura turned away, and continued down the hall. She reached under her shield to receive the magazine she had stolen, and tossed it in Kotaro's direction. Kotaro snatched it out of the air, but didn't reload his weapon right away.

"Don't do anything stupid with that." Homura said as she continued to walk with her back still facing him. "It doesn't matter how good of a shot you are. You will not win against me."

" _Riiiight_." Kotaro said, as he slid the clip into place. Then he looked over to Furuhata and Kaiji, unable to help a slight grin on his face. "Well, that was intense." Kotaro was the first to continue following her, then the other two tailed close behind him, but they all kept more than just a few paces worth of distance from her this time.

"It's close." Homura said. "Be prepared."

* * *

" _Wait a minute? It's still not over yet? Atomyst! YOU LIED TO US!" - All the fans, April 2016_

 **Don't worry, I just decided to split this into yet another chapter.** _ **Again**_ **. BUT DON'T WORRY! You won't be waiting 3 weeks for it this time. Just 1 week. I promise. My goal is to have the final chapter out on the 15th… the 18th at the ABSOLUTE latest, but that's just to give me a buffer zone.**

 **The actual escape plan is turning out to take much longer to resolve than I thought it would. In my head it was like "Ok, introduce the guards, have them shoot at some spiders, some stuff with Homura, bad-da-bing, fight the witch** _ **aaaand**_ **finale."... The actual reality of it obviously doesn't look anything like that. Perhaps I underestimated how many words a proper action sequence takes, or how long it would take to properly build suspense and describe the labyrinth, and get to the points I wanted to get to in the dialog. Plus thinking to add a few things along the way. Since there's a good bit of those things here, I ended up with a chapter about 3X longer than I originally planned. Keep in mind these last 2 (and soon 3) chapters were originally all meant to be just one.** _ **(Fun Facts From Axius: TSO:Ransom was only suppose to be 2-3 thousand words long, not over 14,000! BTW If you haven't read it yet, go do that *thumbsup*)**_

 **Anyway, let's move a little further ahead as far as future plans go.**

 **First, as you know, I'm considering the conclusion of the escape plan the end of part 1. After that, there will be (I want to say 2) flashback chapters, which will explain more thoroughly how Homura ended up here in the first place, as well as all of the other character's histories within this timeline. There's some things that have been hinted at, but not really expanded on thus far. Then, I'm guessing part 2 will be 10-15 chapters. I'd like for this story to be right around 300,000 words when all is said and done, but based on my recent performance with this 'last chapter' it may go over that (maybe a good deal over that).**

 **Also, I want to get back to working on perfect crime. You can check my profile for more details on my plans for dealing with that.**

 **Also in my profile, I want to start keeping track of my progress with which stories I'm working on, as well as an estimated ETA for new chapters. This is something new for me, so it's a bit of an experiment, but I'll try to update those ETA and progress reports daily so readers are not left twiddling their thumbs wondering when the next update is going to pop.**

 **Hm, and I guess that is all that needs to be said for now.**

 **As always, thank you to all the readers/reviewers/and followers!**

 **-Atomyst**


	18. Chapter 18

Homura led the way through the hall, discreetly conferring with her SoulGem to pick out the witch's location. She still had it embedded into her chest and hidden under her clothing. She had already revealed many of her secrets tonight, but regardless of the success or failure of her escape, the existance of her SoulGem is one secret she didn't want them to find out about.

She kept the fact that there was an armed guard behind her in the back of her head, and had a plan of action ready in case he tried to turn on her. She didn't think he would, though. The ' _disappear and unload their weapons'_ trick was quite effective for making the point of how useless it would be for them to try anything.

She allowed him to have his weapon simply for the purpose of building trust. It was surprising that he was able to handle the familiars as well as he did. However, she doubted he would be much use against the actual witch.

These men were actually her hostages right now, but she wanted to create the impression that this wasn't strictly the case, and they were infact on the same side together. Doing that would lessen the possibility of them trying anything funny.

She was anxious about what would happen once the witch was defeated. She would have to rely on luck, that once the labyrinth disappeared she would find herself in the elevator room. Chances are this would not happen, and she would either be stuck in the hallways or another test room. That is when Kaiji would have to be used as a more obvious hostage. Would the other members of the staff be willing to give her up for the lives of one of their lead researches and three guards? She didn't know, but it's all she had and she hoped it would be enough.

She glanced back at them from over her shoulder. They were keeping their distance. They were afraid of her… Or at least, two of them were. Kotaro may have been keeping some distance as well, but she got the impression that this was more of a tactical maneuver than anything else.

Kotaro seemed to catch some hint of her thoughts, and he sped up his pace until he was right over her shoulder again. Perhaps his pride wouldn't allow himself to be mistaken for a coward. "So. Once we destroy this witch thing, everything is going to return to normal?" He asked.

"That is correct." Homura answered, looking forward again.

"If there are still a few metal doors between you and your freedom, what happens then? You use us as hostages, right?"

"That is also correct." Homura briefly glanced back at Kaiji. Kaiji might attempt to hide his fear, and she still couldn't deny that he was brave, however, she could see the slight shaking of his hand. He wasn't like Kotaro. She recognised Kotaro as a true warrior, with no fear of death. Kaiji, on the other hand, was just an ordinary man. "Mainly, I'll be using him. As I said."

"They won't give you up too easily, you know." Kotaro pointed out.

"I'm aware."

"You'll have to show them you're serious."

Homura didn't respond.

"That's where we come in. Isn't it?" Homura remained quiet and continued to lead the way. Kotaro cleared his throat. "There's a chance they would try to call your bluff, in a manner of speaking. It's a bluff you can't disprove without actually throwing away your bargaining chip, which would defeat the purpose of having him in the first place." Kotaro grinned. "If it comes down to that, I'd probably be the first to go, right? Since I'm the biggest threat to you?"

"I don't understand the point of this posturing. Do you just enjoy making yourself sound like a conceited ass?"

Kotaro's grin widened. "Well, that is one of my strong suites." Then he got a bit more serious. "You didn't have to save Murakami's life, you know. Two perfectly conscious guards would be enough for making a point and showing you're serious. You didn't need a third unconscious one. That's the only reason I'm not making a stand here and now."

"It would be pointless for you to try, you cannot defeat me."

"Still, I'd rather go out like a man than take the latter approach. That is, of course, if I thought you really were the cold murdering bitch that you would like us to think you are."

Homura shot him a narrowed eyed look.

"Pardon the language." Kotaro quickly added, although the grin was mildly reappearing on his face. "Whatever the case, I think you really do have good intentions. You just want to be free… Honestly, if I had any other job on the planet I'd definitely be on your side."

Homura raised her eyebrow at him… what was he trying to do? Befriend her? Like he just said, it was his job to keep her imprisoned. They could never be friends… He was probably just trying to gain her trust so he could catch her off guard later. She reminded herself to keep a close eye on this one, and not let herself underestimate him.

"There's something else about you." Kotaro continued, "You don't exactly carry yourself like a regular fourteen year old girl. Granted, the very fact that you are here in the first place means you're not regular, but there's something more to it than that. It's hard to put my finger on."

Homura raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't respond.

He lowered his voice. "It's the way you handle those weapons; you are too comfortable with them. Like pushing the gun into doctor's neck earlier. At first I was scared shitless that thing would go off on you accidentally, but that only lasted a second, because everything from your posture, to the way you held it, and the look in your eyes… It's like it wasn't your first time doing something like that. At your age, it's hard for me to put a grasp on how that could be."

Homura sighed, and looked forward again as she continued to lead the way. "There is something I desire in this life, and it would be difficult to convey just how deep my sacrifices have been to obtain it…" Her demeanor quickly became much more solemn "Just when I finally had it in my grasp, it was snatched away from me again."

"Is it…" Kotaro paused and thought it over, "Are you going to stick a gun in my face if I say her name?" He waited a moment to see if his charm would break through, but it didn't. "You know what I think it really is? I bet you lost something, or someone."

"What the hell are you trying to do?" Homura asked, "Why don't you stop talking and get focused."

"We're about to go to battle together, you know." Kotaro shrugged, "Figured we should understand each other…" He grinned, "Never thought I'd say something like that to a fourteen year old girl, though."

Homura was really tempted to just stick a gun in his face anyway. "No, _we're_ not going into battle. _I'm_ going into battle. This creature we are about to face is nothing that any ordinary human can stand up against. Merely being in its presence would be enough to break you, that is, if I were not there to distract it. You just have that gun as an extra safety precaution, to lessen how much I'll have to be distracted while I'm fighting it."

"You're probably underestimating me a bit. Either that, or you are overestimating yourself. I mean, if you were so good, then how is it you let this _one thing you desire_ slip away from you so easily?"

Homura instantly turned and put the gun in his face, "That's it! Shut your damn mouth!" She shouted at him. Kotaro continued to grin, as if there was no gun in his face at all. He didn't try to move away or flinch or anything, instead he did just the opposite. He moved forward. She was shorter than him, so he had to bow down slightly, but he pushed his forehead right against the barrel of her gun. "Do it if you're going to do it." He said, calmly.

Homura felt her hand wanting to tremble, and she cursed herself for it. She quickly pulled the gun away before he'd get the chance to notice how unresolved her gesture truly was. "I'm sorry." She said quickly, although still staring at him with enough intensity to maintain her dominant position. "I… I'm a bit on edge right now. Besides, the drug I'm on doesn't quite have me acting myself."

"Drug?" Kotaro asked.

Homura glanced over to Kaiji, "Ask him."

Kotaro looked over to Kaiji who had clear guilt on his face. He gave his an employer a rather dirty look, apparently not too happy about with that revelation.

He sighed. "You know, I meant what I said before. If I had any other job in the world I'd definitely be on your side. It's not just that I think what they are doing to you is fucked up, you also kind of remind me of someone…" He paused, "She had that same kind of dominate disposition you carry... She was also about your age when…" There was no longer any trace of a grin on his face.

"It was winter, and our parents were away for the weekend, so my older sister was watching me. Our parents actually tended to be away from home a lot, so that's probably why the two of us were so close with each other. Anyway, I was only ten years old at the time, she was four years older than me, about your age."

Homura glanced at him, her eyes questioning what this was all about.

"There was a public swimming pool down the street from our house, and a few days before, when I was walking by I noticed that it was frozen over with ice. I don't know how it came up, I can't remember if it was my idea or her idea, but we decided to sneak in and go play on the ice. We had been warned before about playing on ice, by teachers, probably our parents too, but you know how kids are. If they are told not to do something, it just makes them want to do it that much more. Plus my sis never was the type to do what she was told, and honestly I wasn't much better myself."

"Anyway, when we got there, she tested it first, to make sure it was safe for me. She stomped her foot down pretty hard, then climbed onto the ice herself, being sure to stay in the shallow end. She even jumped up and down, and I'm telling you, that ice was hard as a rock; there was really no reason to be scared. So I got on too, and we started playing around. We were sliding around, and talking about buying ice skates and coming back later. She had a part time job at a local convenience store, so she had some money."

"Then… she walked over to the deep end of the pool. The ice was pretty solid there too, but she noticed a water bottle sticking out of the ice, just a few feet away from the diving board. I remember thinking to myself, that maybe she shouldn't go over there... it was just a passive thought, and I didn't think much of it… that is, until she kneeled down by the water bottle, and tried to pull on it."

"It happened so fast, if I were to blink I would have missed it, but I didn't blink… and I saw my sister disappear faster than I could register what was happening."

"You know that feeling you get in battle? Where it's like your body is acting on its own? There's no need to think about your actions, it's like instincts take over and everything is decided for you. I think that was the first time I ever experienced it. That feeling used to terrify me," He clenched his hand into a tight first. "Since then, I've learned to conquer it."

"I got off the ice, and ran to her. She was right on the edge of the pool, with her hands gripping the side. She was trying to pull herself up, but only managing to get her eyes just above the edge. There was a huge gash on her head, spilling blood out so fast it was turning the opening in the ice around her red. I guess she must have gotten cut by the ice when she fell through... I grabbed her hand, and pulled with all my strength, and at first I thought everything would be fine, because I just needed to pull her out. It should have been easy, right?"

"Well, it was winter time, and therefore she was wearing heavy winter clothing. With her clothing soaking wet like that, it must have added a hundred kilos. I was only ten years old, Homura, I wasn't strong enough. With her body freezing, her strength was failing too, and it felt like the more I tried the harder it was getting, and her face was falling closer and closer to the surface of the water."

"Why are you telling me this?" Homura asked, but he ignored her and continued.

"After five minutes of this, she no longer looked anything like herself. She was like a ghost, her lips were trembling, and she could barely even speak. I remember the look in her eyes; it's permanently etched into my brain. I hate it. Because even when I want to remember her, the good days we had together, the good days of being with my older sister. Every time I think of her. That's what I see, those last moments and watching her scared trembling face, and there was nothing I could do to help her."

"I didn't want to leave her, but she told me to find help. I did as she said, and ran as fast as my legs could carry me, screaming for help as I ran down the snow covered streets. Eventually, a neighbor driving by in his car saw me, and I led him back to where she was. It was too late by then, though. We saw her floating there, face down, her long blonde hair spreading across the surface of the blood-filled water."

"I'm… sorry…" Homura said, cautiously, not sure what else to say.

"Whenever I think about it, I feel the weakness of my ten year old self. I can never forget… I spent many nights wishing I could go back to that day. Wishing, if I was just stronger… strong enough to pull her out. She would have made it."

After hearing the story, and thinking about how proficient this man was in combat, Homura imagined if he wasn't born a male he definitely would have gotten the chance to make that wish. Ironically, he was probably better off not getting that chance. In most cases, making a deal with the rat tended not to work out in the end.

"Somehow, I think that event is responsible for me being the man I am today… As much as I would like to take it back. Anyway, I'm telling you this, because I see the same kind of thing in you. Something was taken from you, and rather than let it destroy you, you've chosen to fight. We have that in common… I think."

"You might be partly right…" The difference was, Homura could still get back that thing which she has lost… With Kotaro, it was gone forever, and it explained why he quite clearly had no fear of death. Because he truly had nothing to lose. Homura on the other hand, didn't fear much, but she _did_ fear death. Because if she were to die, she wouldn't be able to protect the one she loved. "We are different in that you have accepted what you lost is gone forever. The day I accept it... will be the day I die."

Kotaro grinned. "I kind of respect that. Don't suppose you'll be willing to share your story?"

"No…" She said, coldly. "I doubt you would believe it anyway."

"After tonight, I'd believe just about anything."

"Either way." She stop, and everyone else followed her queue and did the same. "We are out of time… it's here." The hallway darkened. There was no clear source of what was lighting the hallway in the first place, but wherever the light came from, it was now like someone was slowly turning a dimming knob. As the walls darkened, they could see spider webs lining the corners of the hall.

Further down, the next threshold which they would have crossed had changed. The hallway distorted and twisted upward to make room for the much larger doorway. It was lined with a heavy oaken frame, and all they could see is a bright pulsing blue light coming from the other side.

"I was thinking." Kotaro said, "Wouldn't it be better for the others to wait out here?"

"No…" Homura said, "While it's true that the creature behind that door is the greatest possible danger to them, it's still safer for them to stay where I can see them, and protect them in case they are attacked."

Then she turned to him and put her hand on the barrel of his rifle. "Here, I'm not the best at this kind of thing, but it should help you." There was a bright flash of light which seemed to pull into itself and become solid before coating the outside of the gun. When it was done, the gun transformed. It's barrel had widened slightly, and there were now small diamonds encrusted around the length of the barrel, and larger gems of amethyst embedded into the handle.

Kotaro raised an eyebrow as he examined his new weapon.

"You did well against the familiars, but an ordinary gun wielded by an ordinary human would be useless against the creature we are about to face."

"So I guess this means you decided I'm not going to be _useless_ after all." He said with a grin.

Homura rolled her eyes, "That's for defence… try not to draw too much attention to yourself."

Kotaro shrugged, "Not one of my strong suits."

"Then you will die a horrible and painful death, haunted by your failure to save your sister." Homura said matter-of-factly. "Just keep your head down and try not to die, alright?"

Without waiting for a response, Homura led the way into the threshold, and the others followed right after her.

* * *

" _Looks like your attempts at sabotaging her escape are going to fail." His red eyes glistened, and his tail waved back and forth hypnotically._

" _Perhaps. I wasn't expecting her to make it this far."_

" _What are you going to do?"_

" _It seems a more hands on approach will be required." The frowning face raised into something a bit more mischievous. "Imagine a street fight. One of the fighters is completely outmatched; face is bleeding, bones are broken, and being stomped to death by their assailant. Then when it's over, the assailant walks away, but out of nowhere a car comes skidding around the corner and strikes her. I imagine that's what it will seem like to Homura when this is over."_

* * *

 _Creeeek… creeeeeek…_

That sweet smell… flowers… spider lilies…

Homura raised her gun and focused her sights on the creature who sat on the other side of the web littered room. She tried to focus _only_ on that creature. It wore a dress with the same flower design which covered the halls. The boney knees of it's unproportionally long legs pressed tight against the fabric of it's dress. It's face was veiled by a scarf, and only the red of it's eyes saw through. It's bony hands with their long fingers worked with thread and needles; it was knitting.

What Homura tried not to look at where the pictures scattered about on the wall behind it. There were some she didn't understand, but she knew they were making her uncomfortable… perhaps it was a side effect of the drug she was on? These were the pictures of red flowers, like the ones she had seen in the hallways. Others, she did understand, and they made her equally uncomfortable.

One of these were of a silhouette of a girl laying face down in a puddle of rainwater. The angle was from overhead, and even though it appeared to be a painting in all other regards, she could see raindrops falling within the picture frame. Another was of a cityscape, vaguely similar to the skyline of Mitakihara, but it had a silhouette of some enormous creature which didn't fit fully in the shot. It had a hand raised, as if it planned to knock the buildings over like a set of dominoes.

Usually, witches didn't attack Magical Girls in this way, with mental manipulation. Normally, that's something they saved only for their human victims. However, she normally didn't get to meet witches who were hatched from GriefSeeds. Specifically not ones that were spawned by her own grief. That relationship between Magical Girls and witches is something she tried to avoid focusing on… That reality has caused too much pain for her and her friends, and she tried to put it out of her mind for now. Right now, she had to focus on the fight.

The room was completely littered with webs, it would be impossible for her to walk through without getting caught on one. Even if she could easily break through them, some would still get stuck on her and cause her to pull the witch into her time flow if she tried stopping time.

Hitting the witch with her bombs would be ideal, because she wasn't sure how much damage bullets would do… She could always just attack from a distance, and hopefully lure it out, then…

"Homura!" Kotaro shouted, and pointed his gun towards her.

Homura noticed too late, but something had fallen in from above her and latched onto her head. She tried batting it away with the butt of her gun, but to no avail. She screamed and spun around.

"Quit moving damn it!" Kotaro yelled. She was snapped back to her senses and stopped moving, then heard a gunshot go off, and the claws released themselves from her. However, when she reached her hand behind her head she felt that she was now covered in webbing. "I thought you were supposed to be experienced with this stuff?" Kotaro sneered, focusing his sights back on the main target behind the webs.

She shot him a narrow eyed look and said, "Like I said, I'm not exactly at my best right now." She looked up, and noticed there were more of the smaller spiders laying in wait high up where it would be hard to get to them. However, if she tried just running through the webs, they would likely pounce on her. She pointed up at them. "Kotaro, can you pick them off if they try getting to me? I'm going to run through."

Kotaro grinned, and aimed his sights a little higher. "Yup, no problem."

 _Fighting along side a normal human in one of these godforsaken labyrinths_ , Homura silently mused to herself, _never thought I'd see the day. There certainly is something different about this man._

Homura transferred her gun into her left hand, and retrieved a machete from under her shield. It wasn't her favorite weapon, but it would be the best choice for now. She had already been webbed, so her timestop was out the door and she would have to deal with this the old fashion way. If she still had some RPGs stashed in her shield, that would be ideal, but most of them had been used up on Walpurgis Night. She still had plenty of other explosives, though, she just needed to get close enough to use them.

She ran at the webs, keeping her gun in front of her whenever she wasn't swinging the machete to clear her way of the spider webs. One quick glance upward confirmed that the familiars were trying to descend on her, but as soon as she took note of this she started to hear the sound of shots being fired off from Kotaro's weapon. _I'll just have to trust him_ , she thought. He had displayed impressive abilities with the gun so far, so she figured it would be ok.

As she suspected, the webs which were created by the actual witch were much thicker than the ones the smaller familiars could produce. Her machete still cut through them easily, but she could feel a level of resistance, and some remnants of the web tended to stick to the blade afterwards. If she had tried to just barrel through the webs with her body, there's no doubt she would find herself completely restricted of motion in no time.

The witch stood from it's rocking chair, letting the cloth it was knitting drop to the ground. The true length of its limbs had been hidden under it's dress when it sat down. As it raised to a full standing position, it's like it just kept getting taller and taller. In spite of it's freakishly long legs, it's equally lengthy arms hung low enough that it's long boney fingers dangled just below it's knees.

It's actual body was tiny. That would be it's weak spot. If she could just plant a C4 pack right on it's abdomen, this fight would be over. The problem would be getting there… She was making good progress so far, but she suspected this witch still had some tricks up its sleeve. Not to mention, this which stood at least three times taller than her and it would be impossible to get the C4 pack up there as it was now. Throwing another type of bomb probably wouldn't work either. Not only were there too many webs in the way, but those long arms it had could easily bat a pipe bomb right back at her. No… C4, was the best option… but how?

The witch's scarf suddenly loosened from its shoulders and fell away, revealing a grotesque face similar to it's spider familiars. It's arachnid eye's glowed red, its nose sunk into its face with two wide holes for nostrils, but the worst part was its mouth.

Four furry tentacles similar to the claws of it's familiars folded over it's mouth. When the tentacles opened, they revealed a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, and it let out a loud hissing sound. It was so loud, it felt as though it were shaking the entire fabric of the labyrinth around them. It made Homura's skin crawl, and she was tempted to cover her ears.

She raised her gun to fire at it's mouth, and hopefully shut it up, but before she could get the shot out, the witch tilted its head forward and spat. A glob of green spit shot forth from behind the hissing tentacles, and it was heading right for Homura. Her finger pulled the trigger of her gun, but she didn't have time to aim properly and the shot completely missed. She didn't have time to check her surroundings for a safe retreat. Getting caught on one of its webs right now would be an absolute disaster. So instead, she ducked down and tried to hide under her shield.

She batted the spit away with the shield, then rolled forward, slicing at the next layer of webbing as she dove. She finished the roll and landed in a crouch, then pointed her gun back towards the creature's mouth. Just as she raised her own gun, she heard Kotaro's go off, and the creature's head jerk backward with a pained screech, and dark green blood exploded away from the bullet wound.

 _Looks like he is turning out to be rather useful afterall._ Homura thought, as she returned to her feet and continued to run at the witch. There were just a few more layers of webbing to go, and Kotaro provided her with enough of a distraction that she was able to break through easily. Now… she just needed to get the C4 on it's abdomen. When she took a better look at it's legs, the answer became obvious. It had two long legs under its dress, and they protruded outward from each other enough to pull the cloth tight against its knee joints.

Homura slid on her heels to a stop, and aimed. She could still hear Kotaro's gun going off, but he was no longer shooting at the witch. He must have had to change his focus to the familiars which were probably coming after his own group by now. The rate of the shots increased as well, and she realized Furuhata must have joined him in shooting.

Homura pulled power from her SoulGem and fed some magic into her gun. She focused her energy around the bullet which was currently housed inside the chamber, aimed, and fired.

Her aim may have been off all night, because of the drug that had been forced on her, but this shot hit its target perfectly. The witch stumbled, its leg buckled out, and it looked like it would have fallen over if not for it's long arms grabbing at the webs that surrounded the high ceiling of the room for support.

One more. Homura thought, as she aimed for the second knee while the witch was distracted with keeping its balance. She focused her magic, and fired.

This shot wasn't quite on point, but it at least skimmed the witch's knee and tore away the cloth of the dress as well as a bit of flesh. Luckily, it seemed that indirect hit would be enough. The witch started swaying around, and distributed more of it's weight to the webs it was hanging on to. It ended up being enough weight, that the webs could no longer support her, and the witch collapsed to the ground.

Homura ran, circling outward to avoid the falling limbs. Then, she turned on her heels and ran right for the the torso. She would have to watch the two arms, they were long and could easily swat her away if she didn't react quickly enough.

As she anticipated, one of the arms rose, and swung down at her in an arc. She was ready. She used a magic enhanced jump to leap over the witch's furry arm. She did a spin in mid air, and slashed at the arm with her machete as she passed over it. Now she was descending again, and the torso where she wanted to plant her C4 was directly under her.

She reached behind her shield. All she'd have to do is stick the C4 pack onto it as she landed, then make an escape. She would have to get just far enough away to avoid getting caught in the blast, and then this would be over.

She descended…At the angle she was falling she was really going to land right on it's abdomen like she hoped she would.

 _Almost…_ She thought, as she reached into her shield to retrieve the bomb.

Then, with just a few second before hitting her target, the witch's dress burst open. Four legs that had until then been completely hidden under the cloth sprang forward. She swung at them with her machete, and tried to spin away. However, since she was airborne and descending downward, she had very little control over her movement. Each of the four claws dove into her, two cut away some of her flesh, the other two grabbed onto her and hoisted her high up into the air. Her target, the creature's abdomen, was suddenly far out of reach, and she was suspended in the air, securely held in the creature's clutches.

 _Damn it! Eight legs! Of course a spider would have eight legs! You fool!_

She glanced back to Kotaro. Both he and Furuhata were being overrun by the witches familiars. At a glance, Homura could see they were keeping up and holding the creatures back, but they wouldn't be able to stop what they were doing and help her. _The witch planned it like this._ Homura thought, gritting her teeth. _This one is smart._

The witch was laying flat on it's back. It's wounded face hissed at her from afar, and two of it's incredibly long claws held her suspended in the air. One claw held her by her left shoulder, the other by her waist. She raised her machete and swung at the claw holding her shoulder, but from the awkward angle she couldn't get much force behind it. Then, as if in response to this escape attempt; she felt the claw twist, and pain shot throughout her body. Homura let out a painful cry which echoed throughout the witches layer even louder than the sound of the guards gunshots.

 _Idiot… how did you end up like this? You were careless!_ She winced at the pain in her shoulder. As a Magical Girl, she was able to block some of it out, but she wasn't like Sayaka who could fight on through even the most grotesque wounds and act like it was nothing.

Two of it's claws were wounded, two of it's claws held her. She saw the other four claws fold back and seem to tense up. It was clear what they were about to do. _No!_ Homura started struggling, she needed to get away. If all four of those claws were to strike her at once, there was a good chance her body would be completely torn apart!

She dropped the machete, because without being able to get any leverage, it was useless to her. She got her gun into her right hand, and fed as much magic into it as she could, and started to fire. Before she could pull the trigger, the witch started shaking her around, making it impossible for her to aim properly. It's face continued to hiss, and she realized the hissing was starting to sound more like laughing.

 _Damn it! Damn it! There's no way it's ending like this!_ She thought, tears falling from her eyes. _There's just no way! After everything I've been through, there's no way a regular witch is going to take me out!_

Somehow, in her struggle, something caught her eyes. The pictures. She watched the falling rain, and the dying girl it was landing on.

Everything else in the room disappeared from her consciousness. The guards firing their guns, her own impending doom. And she only saw the picture.

 _Madoka…_ She thought. Just because Walpurgisnacht had been defeated didn't mean her Madoka was safe. Kyubey would still be trying to sink his clutches into her. And who knows what else could happen to her? It was a dangerous world after all. Madoka needed her. She needed Homura to protect her.

 _Yeah right. After everything I've been through? There's no way I'm dying here!_

Homura let the gears in her shield spin, stopping time. She quickly reached under her shield and produced a sub machine gun and started firing at the witch. She was held firmly in its clutches, and thus the witch was in her timeflow. However, it seemed to get confused by the sudden change in its surroundings, and it's attack slowed. She continued to fire, letting the bullets burst forth from the gun just to become frozen in the air only halfway to meeting their target.

She focused on her SoulGem's power, ignoring the pain in her shoulder as the witch tried to twist her wound and distract her. She thought only of her magic. She felt it flow from her chest where the SoulGem was kept, up her arms, to the tips of her fingers. She felt a connection with the bullets she had just fired, and fed her magic to them, giving them a little extra explosive power.

Then she resumed time.

The bullets rained down on the creature. It was instantly hit by such a powerful barrage that it could only scream and try to shelter itself behind its claws. Homura was waved back and forth in the air, she could tell the creature wanted to let go of her so it's extra claw could assist in sheltering itself, but in the end it did no such thing. That was fine though, that move had bought her a few crucial moments. The move also damaged the remaining claws it used to shelter itself with, which took away some of the creature offensive powers as well.

She dropped the gun she had, no longer needing it, and produced another one. A desert eagle, a powerful impact weapon. She turned it to her shoulder, taking a few seconds to carefully aim. From the angle she was at, in order to get a proper shot at the claw that held her, she would have to graze her own flesh a little. She was being tossed back and forth through the air, and it was difficult to keep her aim steady. When she saw the opening, however, she fired without hesitation.

The claw instantly let go, and though she injured her own shoulder, it was worth it.

She aimed the gun back at the creature's body and fired a few times, just to keep it on the defense. One claw held her by the waist. She aimed at its joint, and started firing. It was a difficult shot, for any ordinary person it would be impossible. She pulled the trigger over and over again. This one shot is all she needed, once this leg was severed she would be free, and dropping the C4 on it would be simple.

 _Come on… focus!_ She thought, firing her gun over and over again. The fact that she was being waved around, and trying to hit a rather small _moving_ target meant this wasn't an easy shot at all. There was also that drug which has had her operating at far less than a hundred percent all night. If it were not for that, she doubted she would have had this much trouble with the witch in the first place.

 _Focus!_ She fired again and again, untill she only heard a click, and was forced to toss the gun away and pick a new one. Maybe something that fires a bit faster? Something she could just pray and spray, and hope to hit her impossible target?

As her hand reach under her shield, she suddenly felt herself descending. She glanced down - _What?_

The leg had been severed, right at the joint she was aiming at. _But how?_ Perhaps one of her shots grazed it enough to cause some damage? Then added with the way the witch was wildly flailing it's leg about could have been enough momentum to snap it off the rest of the way? Or perhaps Kotaro had managed to get a skilled shot off and help her? She didn't have an explanation, but it didn't matter. Her goal had been accomplished, and as she descended, her hand removed itself from her shield, holding the C4 pack.

Her feet landed atop one of the claws which were defensively curled into the witch's body. She reached past, and stuck the C4 right to it's abdomen. The claws tried to toss her away, but her mission was already complete. She used the witch's own defencive maneuver to increase her momentum, as the witch tossed her away, she jumped, and ascended through the air at an impressive speed.

She was heading right for the web littered ceiling. The web was covered by the witches familiars, and they would slowly tear her apart if she were to get stuck and become unable to move. She didn't have to worry about that though. This would be over before she even got there.

Her hand produced the remote from under her shield, and pressed the button. A shockwave ripped through the room, and she could feel the heat of the flames on her back.

As she descended towards a spider web, it became translucent, and she ended up passing right through it. The dark web ridden room she was in shifted, and became the familiar white tiled floors of the lab. She landed in a roll, and ended up with her legs folded beneath her,and her hand clutching at her wounded shoulder.

"Is… it over?" Kotaro asked. Peaking out from behind his arms, and glancing around. Indeed, the Labyrinth had completely disappeared.

"Homura, are you alright?" Kaiji asked, kneeling down infront of her and examining her wounds.. "You need to get that treated."

"I'll be fine…" She said scornfully, then glanced around… this wasn't a test room… it wasn't the hallway either…

"Freeze!" She heard someone shout from behind her, and she heard the metallic slides of at least three guns being brought to the ready.

She glanced over her shoulder… and her eyes widened.

She looked right past these three new guards, not caring much for their presence, but she focused on what was directly behind them.

A Metal box, with a small panel on the side which contained a button with an up arrow.

The elevator! She made it! She was in the elevator room!

Of course, it made sense now that she saw the much higher ceiling of this room. This witch seemed to build its labyrinth over an existing landscape, and since the witch itself was so big, by design, it needed a room like this to put it's own layer on top of.

Homura slowly raised herself back to her feet.

"I SAID FREEZE!" The guard shouted again, and all three of those guards at her back took a step forward.

Homura put her hands in the air and stood, then slowly turned towards them. She couldn't help the amused grin on her face. _Do they really think they can stop me now?_ She thought sardonically. _All I need to do is stop time and…_

Something struck her back, and she was tackled to the ground. Her good arm was forced behind her back, as she was brought into a submission hold. She screamed as her arm was bent back far enough to tear at her shoulder socket. Her other arm had already been damaged in the fight, and wouldn't be able to offer her much in the way of resistance.

Her attacker pushed her face against the cold tile floor. She forced her eyes to their corners so she could see behind herself. She already knew who it was, but she couldn't believe it! "Kotaro!" She said through gritted teeth, "You fucking bastard!"

"Quickly!" Kotaro commanded the other guards. "Help me detain her! She is much stronger than she looks! I can't hold her forever!"

"I'll kill you!" She screamed, as she thrashed around, trying to break free from his hold. However, as she already knew, Kotaro was top notch. Even though, thanks to her magic, she could be much stronger than him; he accounted for that and put her into a hold which made it impossible for her to get any leverage. Her arms were completely useless right now.

His knees found pressure points at the back of her legs which also immobilized her there. She was beaten. That bastard had this planned all along, that's why he spoke so openly to her earlier. To gain her trust, so she wouldn't see this betrayal coming. And she fell for it… She fell for it!

" _I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"_ Homura repeated over and over through gritted teeth. She would do it too. If he ever were to escort her to a test room again, she would stop time as soon as he was in her sight, and strangle him to death with her bare hands. This betrayal would not go unpunished. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Sorry Homura." Kotaro said, "Like I said, if I had any other job in the world I would definitely be on your side… as it so happens, however…"

She could picture that stupid grin on his face as he effectively sentenced her to death. How could she have allowed herself to trust him? She hated herself for being so foolish. She was so close to her freedom… how could this have happened?

Kotaro leaned forward. She could feel his breath just behind her ear.

 _I'll fucking kill you._

"Just proving a point." He whispered to her.

 _What!?_ She hadn't considered stopping time before, because that would only be revealing her secret to him. As long as he had her held down like this, she couldn't escape him even if time was stopped, so it would be pointless. What did he just say, though? What did that mean? She heard the amusement in his voice…. Could he possibly be?…

She stopped time, just as one of the guards removed a taser from his belt and started to kneel down towards her.

Kotaro gasped, and she felt his grip loosen. She could probably shake him off now that he was distracted, but she wanted a moment to talk to him first. "Kotaro… what you just said."

"H-Homura?..." He asked, looking around at the other guards who were now frozen in place. "What is this? What did you… wait…" His words trailed off as he started thinking it over.

"It doesn't matter." Homura said, "This is something you will never see again. The important thing to note is that no one can hear or see us while we are here, so you can talk freely… Now… would you mind getting off of me?"

"Heh, right." And with that he released her, but she quickly grabbed onto his hand again as she stood and turned to face him. He looked down at her hand clasped around his, then looked back to her with a raised eyebrow.

"I need to do this to keep you in my…" She searched for the right word, " _Flow_ … so wipe that stupid look off your face."

"Oh, and here I thought you just liked me." He wiped his grinning face off on the back of his sleeve. "Well anyway, I've got my theories about what this is, but I'll let you have your secrets. And sorry about tackling you like that. I just had to keep up appearances, you know? Besides that, I didn't want to part ways with you thinking that you could beat me. I had to prove a point."

Homura's eyes narrowed, but she couldn't help letting her own lips raise into a humorous grin as well. "Alright, fair enough, but you did catch me off guard, you know."

"Then maybe we can settle it some other time?"

"Maybe… but it's unlikely." She glanced back to the elevator. "So, that will take me to the surface?"

"Yeah, but by now there could be a whole military force waiting for you up there."

Homura shrugged, "That won't be a problem. Once I make it to the top I can move right past them… I have to ask though… why _did_ you let me go?"

"I already explained that, didn't I?" He laughed, "Well, mainly it's what you said. About refusing to accept the thing that you lost. My sister died, there is nothing I can do about that, but I thought if I could make myself stronger, I could become strong enough to not have to lose anything ever again. Still, no matter how strong I get, I can't change what happened that day. It's different with you though, I don't know what it is, but it's clear you still have something you can fight for. Whatever that is, I'm guessing it's the reason you are what you are, and that means it must be something really precious. There's simply no way I could stand in the way of that."

"Well… thanks." Homura said, her lips rose into the warmest expression she had ever since being brought here. "Anyway… I guess this is goodbye."

"Yup. Now hurry up and get out of here." Kotaro said, grinning.

"There's just one more thing, though." Homura said, still holding onto his hand. Kotaro looked at her with a confused expression. She shrugged and said, "Sorry about this."

Using Magic to enhance her arm strength, she pulled his hand down with a sudden jerk which made him stumble forward. Before he could react, she jumped up, leading with her knee, and knee'd him right in the center of his face with enough force to send him flying back in the other direction. Their contact ceased, and he was left suspended in mid air with a trail of blood leading away from his nose.

She only did that to keep up appearances. If his employers figured out he had let her go purposely, it could mean a lot of trouble for him. The injury she gave him would be bad enough no one would doubt it was a serious struggle, but at the same time it wouldn't be bad enough to cause any permanent damage.

Now, there was just one more thing she had to do. She went to each of the three guards, unloaded their weapons, took the spare bullet clips and tasers, and stored all of this in her shield space. She went back to Kotaro and Furuhata and did the same with their weapons, just to be on the safe side. Then, she went to the center of the room so she could give her last list of demands before making her departure.

She retrieved another pistol from her shield space, and held it up before resuming time. There was a series of metallic slides as all the guards, including Furuhata, readied their weapons. The guard who, from his point of view, was just moments away from tasing her jumped back in surprise.

Kotaro's back hit the ground, and he rolled over onto his side holding his face. "Ah! That fucking bitch! How'd she do it?" He screamed in a nasally voice as he rolled around and held tight to the wound. He may have been putting it on a little, but Homura had a feeling it wasn't _totally_ an act.

"Quick! Get her!" One of the guards shouted, when they came to the realisation their guns were unloaded. All of a sudden, all three were charging at her. She stopped time, and gave each a relatively powerful blow with her fists, just enough to knock them down to their knees, then she went to stand by the elevator with her gun raised before resuming time again. One of them fell to the ground, the other two staggered, but managed stay on their feet by catching themselves on the wall.

"Doctor Kaiji!" Homura said. "Order these men to stand down. Opposing me now will only mean forcing me to cause them harm."

Kaiji's eyes were wide with surprise… or was that disappointment? Maybe the doctor wasn't so eager to let his test subject go free after all? Still, he complied. "Yes. Stand down!" He ordered the men. "It's as she said, there's nothing we can do now. Her power is not something that can be fought against."

"Now here is what's going to happen." Homura said, slowly, making sure they were all paying attention. "I'm going to need to ride this elevator to the top. I gave you all a free pass so far, but at this point anyone who tries to stop me will lose their lives." She looked directly at Kaiji, "Is there a way for them to cut the power to this thing while I'm in it?"

Kaiji thought it over, then shook his head. "It could be done from the control room, but as far as I know, no one is there. This elevator is powered by a generator which is located here on the lower part of the lab. If that were to be manually disabled, the elevator would stop, but it is unlikely that will happen."

Homura gestured her gun up at the ceiling. "I'm assuming there are more guards waiting for me up there. As I said, at this point anyone who stands in my way will die."

"Homura… Please just…" Kaiji started to speak, but was silenced again by the dark and murderous expression that came over Homura's face.

"You can reach them through your radio's, can't you?" She asked, "You have until I make it to the top to convince them to stand down."

"Homura…"

"We're done here." She started to turn away, but Kaiji had one more thing to say.

"Wait!" She glanced back at him from over her shoulder. "Listen… I know my apologies are meaningless at this point." Kaiji said. Homura brush him off, but somehow she could see the sincerity on his face. "I know it's a cruel thing we put you though, and mistakes were made… but we… or at least, most of us had good intentions. Good intentions aside… what happened to you was wrong. And I'm sorry."

Her eyes narrowed. "Goodbye… _Doctor…"_ She said with a dry voice, then she stopped time, and turned back towards the elevator.

The door was open, and it was just a few steps away.

 _This is it…_ She thought _. I'm free! Free!_

Each step was slow and dramatic, each time she raised and lowered a foot, she was one more step closer to her freedom. Soon she would be inside the elevator, then she'd resume time and ride it to the top. Once at the top, time would be stopped once again, and she would keep it that way until she was far out of their reach. It didn't matter if there were guards up there or not, it would be impossible for them to touch her.

 _Free..._

Tears started to roll down her cheeks. _Free… I'm finally free…_

 _Madoka… I'm coming..._

After all her suffering, she finally had her happy ending. She would go find Madoka right away, and hug her, and kiss her. The thought put a smile on her tear stained face. She would hold her, her one true love, and never let her go again, never have to worry about losing her ever again. After everything she had been through, it was finally almost over.

It wouldn't be easy from that point on; they would still be searching for her. Madoka might become a target too, because she was the only person Homura was close to. Everything would be ok in the end, though, she knew it. She would continue to keep Madoka safe, and now that she was free she could keep her by her side and never let her go again.

She stepped into the elevator, and looked back at the frozen guards. _This is it._

She took a deep breath as her eyes scanned the buttons on the elevator's control panel. _Up. So simple. Just resume time and push this button that says 'up'._ She smiled.

The guards couldn't do anything to stop her, they wouldn't even try. If someone else who was outside of her reach had the ability to stop the elevator, that wouldn't matter either. Worst case scenario, she could just stop time again and climb up the elevator shaft. It shouldn't be too hard, she was a magical girl after all… nothing could stop her now... _Nothing!_

She put her hand to her shield and prepared to resume time. She gave her prison one last doleful look. "Goodbye." She whispered, her lips pierced up into a joyful smile, her cheeks wet with tears of happiness. "Goodbye forever, assholes."

Then, she felt a pain on her scalp, and her head was forcefully jerked back. Something had pulled her hair!

Her hand slipped off of the shield and her head was slammed into the steel wall of the elevator. She gasped. The blow was hard enough that stars swam across her field of vision, and her ears started ringing. Her eyes darted behind herself. _What?_

Through the corner of her eye, there was some motion, but before she could fully turn to look, something struck her on the side of the face with enough force to turn her around. It ripped her cheek open, just under her eye. The unexpected blow caused her feet to retreat out of sequence, and she fell down into the opposite corner of the elevator.

Operating purely on instinct; her hand darted behind her shield and produced a handgun which fired three shots in the direction of the unknown attacker. The bullets simply floated to the opposite wall and stopped when their little tips touched the metal surface… But there was nothing in sight.

Homura got a hand under herself and pushed herself back to her feet. The wound on her cheek already stained the entire left side of her face with blood, and she could taste the warm metallic liquid finding it's way past her lips and resting on her tongue.

When she was only halfway to her feet, she felt that same sting on her scalp; Something pulled her hair again, and her head once again slammed into the side of the elevator. This time, she was quicker. She turned with a sudden jerk, a lock of hair was ripped from her head: but, she managed to get a hold of her attacker.

 _Got you!_

There was an arm coming out of the wall of the elevator, it's fist clenched tightly around a lock of severed hair, but she had managed to grab it by the wrist. Homura pulled with all her strength and the arm came out far enough she could see the shoulder it was attached to. It's skin was incredibly white.

Then, another hand came out and grabbed onto the side of her face. It's fingers dug into her hair, clenched tightly around her temple, and it's thumb searched out her eyeball and started pushing. Homura grunted through clenched teeth and dropped her gun so she could grab this other arm. She grabbed it by the wrist and forced it's thumb away from her eye. It still tried to push into the delicate socket, but Homura managed to hold it back. Her vision was temporarily blackened, but the damage wasn't too severe. A battle cry escaped her lips as she wrestled with the two arms.

The first one dropped the lock of hair it was holding, and forced itself onto the other side of her face. Homura realized what it intended to do, and she screamed as she tried to pull away. The two arms pulled harder, however, and she was slammed face first into the wall with a sickening crunch as her nose flattened. Her battlecry turned into a scream of pain, and she pulled herself away, only to have her face slammed into the wall once again, and then again.

She let go, and instead of wrestling with the arms, she put her palms flat against the wall to give herself more leverage to resist the beating. Then something hit her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and forcing her to release all the air from her lungs. Her eyes glanced down to see a foot retreating back into the wall. The hands pushed her away, and let go. Homura's back hit the opposite side of the elevator, and her arms instinctively went down to her stomach as she tried to bring air back into her lungs.

From the wall she now had her back against; those hands grabbed her by the shoulders. She winced, expecting to have the back of her head slammed into the wall once again. Instead, she was pulled through. The metallic wall of the elevator was exchanged with the familiar white of the labs walls. She twisted and turned, trying to resist her attacker. She felt a knee drive right into the center of her back. A wave of pain went throughout her entire body as her nervous system was shocked right at the root. An ordinary person would likely have been permanently paralyzed from the blow.

She was flipped around in mid air as she was pulled through another wall. She got a brief glimpse of her attacker, but everything was moving so fast she only registered the white hair and light-blue eyes. Now turned around, that same knee came up and delivered another blow above her stomach, cracking the two lower ribs on the left side of her chest. Homura would have screamed if she could, but only a shocked gurgling sound came out.

She was pulled through another wall, and then thrown to the ground. She landed in the fetal position, her eyes wide, her mouth fully open and catching blood from the wound on her cheek. Her eyes darted back to her attacker, but she only caught sight of two legs disappearing into a wall.

She hugged herself tightly, pulling magic from her SoulGem and healing herself. Her spine realigned, her ribs started reconstructing and setting back into place. She choked for breath throughout the entire process, until she recovered enough that her lungs finally filled with a deep gasp of air. " _W-w-why…"_ She croaked out. She was able to block out most of the pain, but her body hadn't finished healing, and she was still too damaged to move. Her horrified eyes glanced all around… she saw a mirror, cameras, and a metal door… she was in a test room. Her eyes glanced down, and she saw that she was laying atop a red X.

"No…" She croaked, still healing. Then "NO!"

She got her hands on the ground, and pushed herself up onto all fours. then crawled towards the metal door. "No… no…" She whispered, her wide eyes regarded the door as if it were some kind of eldritch horror. She reached the door, still on her knees, and touched it, feeling the cold metal against her fingertips. "No… This can't be… please…" Her nails dug into the metal and slowly scratched down its smooth surface, she pressed her forehead against it, letting silent tears fall from her eyes. "Please."

" _Sorry I had to be so rough like that. I simply couldn't take the risk of you getting the upper hand."_

Homura's teeth clenched together, every muscle in her body tensed. She felt an intense rush of hatred and anger coursing through her veins, the likes of which even she had never felt before. Her head slowly turned toward her assailant, her nails stills digging into the metal with enough force to turn her knuckles white. Her broken nose whistled in sync with her heavy breathing.

She saw a folded pair of legs lowering down from the ceiling, with the white and gold tail of a tunic preceding them. Then there was a bare stomach, every bit as white as the labs walls, and hands neatly folded in their lap as the girl lowered down into the test room. She had a long pointed nose, and narrow eyes. Her lips were blue, and pressed together in a curt smile which reminded Homura of a different kind of white-faced creature. She had long white hair with traces of blue at the very ends, it almost looked like frost, and light-blue eyes. Homura's own skin could be considered pale, but this girl was as white as a sheet of paper.

"I do feel bad about this." The girl said, "for what it's worth, I do respect you, Akemi-san, and I don't feel good about having to resort to such underhanded methods. If it's any consolation, I can offer to help you with healing your injuries."

"Why?" Homura said in an accusing whisper. Her own eyes were blazing with fire, every muscle in her body was tense and ready to strike. Who was this girl? And how was she in her time flow?

The girls head tilted to the side. "Why am I offering to help heal you?

"No! Why are you trying to stop me!" Homura spat at her.

Homura watched the girl's hands. Her left hand had its fingers pointing up at the ceiling. When Homura looked closer she was able to see that light was catching four very thin threads, or were they wires? Homura's eyes delicately traced the wire and realized that each of the four threads were connected to her, one around each wrist and one around each ankle. _Damn it! You fool, how did you not notice that before?_

"Because you were trying to escape." Her lips parted and a bit of tooth was shown in a mocking smile. "You know you're not suppose to leave your room, Akemi-san."

"So that's it…" Homura's eyes lowered, feigning a defeated posture. "They had another Magical Girl working for them this whole time…" Homura cautiously considered the wires, if she could cut them, then the girl would be pushed out of her timeflow and she would have the upper hand once again.

"Well… not exactly. Indeed I have been keeping an eye on you," She laughed, "I didn't imagine they would _actually_ be able to keep a Magical Girl locked up in here forever, especially not one who is as powerful as you, Akemi-san. They are just ordinary humans, after all. But, they are not aware of my presence here… well, Mr. Kaiji sort of is, but he has never actually seen me and probably has no idea who I am or that I'm a Magical Girl like you."

Homura sighed, cautiously tracing the wires through her peripheral vision. "Quit messing with me. Why would you do that? Why are you trying to keep me here!" It would be hard to get the wires with one slash from where she stood, but they came closer together from where they were drawn on the girl's fingers. Homura picked out a spot which was about halfway between the two of them, and decided that would be the best place to go for it. She just needed a distraction...

The girls playful expression suddenly became much more serious. "Well… if they can continue to run his experiments on you, and learn about magic then… then…" Her eyes brightened up once again, and the smile returned to her lips. "Then maybe they can find a way to reverse the effects of SoulGems! And there will be a way to fix me! Kyubey-sama seems to think it's a possibility, at least."

Homura's mouth dropped open, "Kyubey… _SAMA_?" Of course, now it all made sense, the rat had been manipulating this poor girl into doing his bidding. "Listen to me… Kyubey is not what you think. He is not on your side, he wants me in here in order to pressure one of my friends into making a contract with him. That's all he cares about! The contracts! He is NOT your friend!"

"Does it matter? I just want to get changed back into a normal human again, Kyubey can't do it, but he said maybe they can."

"Maybe? Is that what he said? MAYBE?" The girl looked confused, "What were his exact words?"

"W-well, he said it was a possibility."

Homura shook her head and laughed, "To that creature, even if it was only a one percent possibility he would still use the word _possibility_ as if it were a good chance. Listen to me, Magical Girls can not be changed back into humans. Even if they could, the only ones who would have that technology are the incubators themselves."

"Incubator? I don't know that word."

"That's what Kyubey is. He is part of an alien species that call themselves incubators. Their species are millions of years older than humans, they are far more advanced than us. If they don't have the technology to turn Magical Girls back into humans, than there is no way humans themselves would ever be able to do it!"

"But still, there's a possibility."

"Maybe one in a million, but Kyubey would never admit that. Don't you see? He's manipulating you! Listen, I have friends on the outside, they are all Magical Girls and we all help eachother out. You can pull me through the walls again, right? Then, help me get free, and you can join our team. Forget about Kyubey, and forget about becoming human again, because it's impossible! Instead, let us help you. That's your best option."

The girl's lips shrank into a stubborn frown, "Even if it's one in a million, there is still a possibility." Her eyes narrowed. "Sorry, but I'm not going to let you out of here."

Homura could see it in her eyes. The stubbornness, unwillingness to bend. There was no chance of her getting through to this girl. Her only option was to use force, and make the girl let her out. The girl's SoulGem was in the center of her hand. Homura just needed to get her out of her timeflow, and then hold a gun to the SoulGem, and force the girl to let her out. This wasn't over yet. She just had to cut those wires…

Homura resumed time.

In one quick motion, she pulled a throwing knife from behind her shield and tossed it at the girl. It was just a distraction. She sprang forward and produced a combat knife as the girl flinched away from the throwing knife. Homura found that spot where the strings were closer together, and with one quick swoop of the hand, she got all four of them within her grasp and pulled them tight. She raised her knife high in the air, and…

The first thing she noticed was the tips of her own fingers flying off. From her point of view, it almost seemed to happen in slow motion. Then, she was falling… Her eyes widened with horror as she looked down at her own legs, and saw her ankles ended in two bloody stumps. Her feet, still wearing the high heeled shoes of her magical girl costume, were scattered about on the floor behind her with their toes pointing in opposite directions.

Everything was slow for her as she reached under her shield and produced a gun. Her thumb flicked the safety, she turned her arm to aim, and watched as blood shot away from her wrist in a perfect circle, and her hand, still holding the gun, fell to the floor.

Homura laid on the floor, trapped in the horror of her dismemberment. She had lost three of her limbs, and only one thumb remained on her left hand. _This… can't… be…_

The girls shoes clicked against the tiled floor as she walked toward Homura. Homura looked up at her through the tops of her eyes, her facial expression begging for mercy.

"Oh, come on now. Why are you looking at me like that?" The girl said teasingly, "It's not like you can't just attach them again, you know. So cheer up." She reached down and picked up Homura's pinky finger. "Well, maybe as a punishment I'll keep this one. That way, in the future you'll know not to try something stupid like that again. Actually, this finger can be your punishment for trying to escape in the first place."

"P-please…" Homura whispered, tears streaming from her eyes. "Please…"

"Please what?" The girl asked, placing her foot atop Homura's head. She twisted her foot back and forth and pressed down hard, grinding Homura's face into the ground. "Please give you your finger back? Or are you still begging me to just let you escape?" She tilted forward, forcing more of her body weight onto Homura's face, and grinded her foot more violently. "Well? Speak up!"

Homura was silent, her eyes no longer saw anything. They just stared blankly.

 _Madoka… I'm sorry…_

Then, from somewhere deep down in her own subconscious, a familiar voice whispered to her. _What are you apologising for? It's not over yet. You know what you have to do._

 _That's right…_ Homura thought, and she cautiously glanced at her shield. _I didn't know about her… but now I do… All I have to do is go back._

That was always the last resort solution to her situation. She didn't want to do it, because after dozens of failed timelines, she finally managed to do everything right and keep Madoka safe. She feared going back, because she worried that she might never get this result again. But now there was no choice. She would have to dive back into that endless maze, and maybe it would be another lifetime of struggling before she managed to defeat Walpurgisnacht again… but it's all she could do. This was her only option.

Somehow, she just needed to turn the shield… and go back...

The girl sighed and took her foot off of Homura's face, then went to gather the severed appendages. "Ok, so here is what's going to happen now. I'm going to reattach all this stuff using my own magic. I don't want you to end up using too much of yours." She laughed "You're going to need to save it for the tests. Anyway, once that's done, the guards will eventually figure out you are in here and then take you back to your room… or maybe somewhere else, who knows. The important thing I want you to get out of this is that no matter what, under any circumstances, you are NOT to tell them about my existence. Is that clear?"

"Y-yes…" Homura's broken voice whispered. That's it… for now she would just have to play possum, let this girl think that she had won. She was going to give her hand back, once that was done, and the girls guard was down, Homura would just have to turn the shield.

The girl laid Homura's limbs and severed fingers out in a neat row, then kneeled down and brought Homura's right hand over to the bloody stump where it belonged. Homura's whole body was shaking as she watched. In all of her timelines, even during her fights against Walpurgisnacht, she had never been so grievously injured before. She felt her body going into shock. It would be ok though, she told herself, just stay conscious and wait for your chance.

"Oh, wait." The girl stopped what she was doing and stood. Her eyes stared at Homura's shaking body, and Homura looked back at her through the tops of her eyes. Homura's face was completely pale, her lips quivering, her eyes begging.

The girl's eyes narrowed, and her blue lips lost their placid smile. "Can I trust you?" She asked.

Homura started nodding her head, eager to just agree with anything this girl said for now.

The girl seemed to be pondering something. "Are you sure…" Then, her foot raised up and stomped down on Homura's left hand which was missing every finger except for her thumb, and she started grinding her heel into the wound. Homura let out a long cry of pain, her body rolling and trying to pull her hand away, but to no avail. "Are you sure you weren't planning to get away by going back in time?"

Homura's eyes shot wide open, horrified, and her struggling ceased. _She knows? But how?_

The girl's lips parted, and her teeth bared in a sadistic smile. "Tricked yah!" Her voice almost sounded playful. "Based on that reaction, I guess it really is true. Kyubey-sama had his suspicions, but we didn't know for sure until now. Well anyway… since that's the case." She pointed her index finger to the ceiling, and a golden ring of light appeared around it, almost like a halo. The light tightened against her skin, and then shot a string which wrapped around Homura's forearm, above the shield...

"NO!" Homura screamed, trying to pull away. She already knew what the girl was planning to do. "NO! Please! PLEASE! Don't!" She couldn't escape, she couldn't fight back, she couldn't even stand, all she could do is beg. "Don't do that! I can help you! Let me out of here and me and my friends can help you! I swear it! I swear I can-"..." _GHHAAAAAAAA!"_

The girl's foot quickly kicked the severed arm away, the shield scraped across the ground as the arm turned and slid. Homura rolled onto her back holding the bloody stump in the air above her, as she let out a bloodcurdling scream. Any normal person would be struck by the sight, and shaken by the sound coming out of the dismembered girl. The blue lipped girl seemed unaffected, however. She simply kneeled down, watching Homura roll around in her own blood. With a completely emotionless gaze she listened to her screams.

Eventually Homura's heavy sobs gave way to shuttering, her voice was raw, baying with a hoarse tone as her eye stared at the ceiling in disbelief. _How… how could this happen? It can't be real… It can't..._

"I'll give you a moment to calm down... Don't worry, you'll feel better once I've healed you a bit. I've even got a GriefSeed for you, and you can have your hand and feet back, but of course, that shield arm of yours is mine now." She smiled, "It's a shame, they'll lose the ability to study your timestop magic, but I'm sure they will be able to find other uses for you."

The tone to her voice. It was so familiar. Calm, yet subtly playful in its cruelty. It sounded like…

 _..."Who… are… you…"_ Homura managed to whisper through her trembling lips.

The girl kneeled down infront of Homura, cradling the severed hand and feet under her arm. Her paper white skin was now stained with Homura's blood. She reached her hand down under Homura's chin and forced her to look her in the eyes. Her blue lips smiled, and with a soft tone of voice she said, "My name is Tsarina. Tsarina Endou."

* * *

 **END OF PART ONE**

 **-Atomyst**


	19. Chapter 19

_It's a dream… this has to… be a..._

She was on her back, laying on something soft. There was a sound; a quick repetitive squeaking sound... _Wheels?_

There were voices around her, mostly male, but one female… Her head felt dizzy and she couldn't make out their words… It was rushed, though…

. _...This situation…_ It reminded her of something... something from a different life… Before witches, before Magical Girls… _before Madoka_ … Back when she didn't have magic to cure her weak heart, or her bad eyesight… and before she had something to fight for...

Her head shifted slightly, and the voices around her became hushed.

"She just moved." She distinctly heard one say.

"It's alright, probably just a muscle spasm." Said another, "We gave her enough anesthetic to keep her out at least until morning."

 _Movement..._ She was being moved, she realized, and when the squeaking of wheels slowed to a stop, she understood that she was on a stretcher.

She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't. If she concentrated very hard she could just move the tips of her fingers… she thought she could, anyway.

 _My fingers…_

That's when the nightmare started to come back to her. The twisted, mocking face. That soulless expression, completely indifferent to the horrors it caused her, and even worse, almost seeming amused.

That couldn't have been real, though. Those haunting blue lips, that paper white skin. It had to be a dream…

Even before that... everything she had been through... Being trapped in such a horrible place… Kyoko going undercover as a psychologist… being drugged… unleashing the witch and fighting alongside a normal human… _no_... it had to be fake… all of it...

She just needed to open her eyes… and verify that this had all been a really bad dream… but she couldn't even do that.

She felt something sharp jam in her right arm, right at the underside of her elbow joint. It made her want to scream, but she was trapped in this motionless hell. She could hear those voices around her. Something about blood loss... and she clearly heard one say, "She shouldn't even be alive."

 _What is this? Please let me out! Someone please help me!_

She felt needles going into her. A buzzing sound. Chatter about broken bones. Something being pumped into the incision under her right elbow. Another peculiar feeling around her left arm…

 _My left arm…_

She wanted to move, she wanted to do anything to resist this.

 _My left arm is gone…_

 _No, that was just a nightmare_ , she reminded herself. This situation too. Those voices.

The coherency faded in and out. Like reality came through on radio waves, and she was currently tuned to a station with bad reception. There were bits and pieces of the program she wanted to listen to, but it was inconsistent, and sounds from other stations bled through as well. Unlike a radio, however, it wasn't just sounds. It was also feelings. Thoughts. Memories.

" _Aer yuo gvinig up?"_

Her consciousness shifted.

" _Lte me desotry tehm… KLIL TEHM!"_

What was that? It wasn't one of the voices around her… she could still hear those voices, but this new one overpowered them, and made them less present… and contrary to the physical voices around her, she actually recognised this one. She couldn't place it, but she knew she had heard it before.

" _Gvie me cntorol… Hmorua..."_

Homura listened closely… the words made no sense, but somehow she thought she knew what the owner of the voice wanted. This wasn't the first time, after all... it had asked before. She just wasn't always able to remember.

" _Gierf… So mcuh… girevnig… let me… LET ME!"_

" _Get away!"_ Homura thought back at it, " _Leave me alone!"_

" _Hwo mcuh lnoegr msut I wiat? Iev waited wtiead so lnog! LET ME!"_

" _I CAN'T!"_ Homura screamed the thought, and suddenly felt her heart raise in her chest. A feeling of vertigo surrounded her, as if she were falling. Or maybe it was as if a strong gust of wind had blown her off of the stretcher, and now carried her high into the air.

Everything was black before, but now her vision came back. First, a flash of blinding redness that made her want to shield her eyes, but when she tried to do so, nothing happened. It only lasted a moment, and then she was falling. Everything around her was mostly black, but below her she saw a single purple square. It was tiny, but as she continued to fall it got bigger and bigger until it was easier to make out what it was.

It was a window, rounded on top, with wooden cross on either side of its shutters. As Homura continued her descent, she feared that she would crash right into it, but before that happened, it opened. She fell through this window, and then another and another with less then a second between each threshold. There had to be at least twenty of them. She found herself screaming, with her senses overflowing, her instincts constantly telling her she was about to crash through one of the windows, but they always opened just before that would have happened.

Then, there was a red window with stained glass which depicted the image of spiderlilies on either side of it. This one was further away, and when it opened she was blinded by that same red light. She felt something pushing against her, a heavy wind which interrupted her downward momentum and slowed her. When the light disappeared, she saw solid ground. Still endless red. It was a field she had seen before. A field of flowers.

Her knees hit first, then her right hand. She tried to put down her left hand as well, but there was nothing there. Her shoulder and the side of her face hit the ground hard enough to create a ringing in her ears.

Her vision blurred for a moment, and slowly her senses came back to her. Her anxiety subsided, and she felt a calmness taking over her. It was the flowers.

She was surrounded by them. That sweet fragrant smell. Her eyes stared ahead at the stems of the flower bed and thought, ' _It's beautiful.'_ Her head lifted and her eyes fell upon the tops of their red petals. She tried to use her left arm to push herself up, but just ended up hitting her head against the dirt floor again.

Her anxiety had subsided, and she had mistaken it for calm. It was something else, though. It was emptiness.

 _My arm…_

She sat up, and felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she examined the forearm which ended in a smooth, unsleeved stump. She was broken. A piece of her had been taken away, and it wasn't just a dream. It was real! "Please…" She whispered to herself, her vision blurring from the tears which dampened her eyelashes. "This… can't…"

Then she heard a snap, and her head shot up. She glanced around fearfully, expecting that the monster who had done this to her was coming back to taunt her more. That monster was nowhere to be seen. But she saw a new one.

Long black hair spilled over the back of a chair, puffy shoulders and a laced gown. The girl sat in her chair with her back facing Homura. Her hand was outstretched with her fingers still in position from snapping. She just sat there, staring out over the endless red horizon. "I've been waiting for you." She said, "I was wondering when you would finally come, and here you are. They call me good-for-nothing, worthless. They blame it on me."

"B-blame?" Homura asked, somehow the tears had stopped flowing from her eyes, and she just stared at the back of the black haired girl's head. "For what?"

"Everything. Anything. They are resentful that I am their master, that's why they nicknamed me good-for-nothing. I suppose it's a fitting enough name for a worthless creature like me."

Homura didn't understand, but she knew this voice. She knew it very well. It was her own voice.

"You don't understand. That's because you only see the present. My flaw is that I only see the future. Neither of us remembers the past… But, I wonder if _they_ do? They don't talk to me about such things."

"W-what?" Homura asked, and shook her head. Her remaining arm crossed over her chest and her hand held tight to the opposite shoulder. "Who?"

The fingers that had snapped, now raised up, and they pointed. Far in the distance, where the red field raised into a slope; a hill was covered with the same flowers. On it, Homura could see movement. She had to squint her eyes, but even then it was so far away she could only vaguely make out the shapes. She eventually recognised it as at least a dozen people: half were in the center of the group, carrying what looked like a black box, the others kept in pace, marching at a uniformed distance on every side.

"You'll have to forgive them." The girl said, "They have grown quite impatient, and are eager to get this over with. Those insolent servants of mine were never very courteous in the first place. Still, I think we have some time before they reach us."

"You're not explaining anything!" Homura shouted. Her hand gripped tighter to her shoulder. "Who are they? Eager for what?"

The girl's head turned, and slowly a white cheek revealed itself from behind the veil of hair. There was something wrong about the way that head turned. The shoulders remained completely motionless, and the arm was still held in the air with it's finger pointing. Homura's

mouth dropped open as the creature's head continued to turn.

It's wooden chin eventually hovered over the motionless shoulder. The head continued to turn, until it was completely backwards, and Homura was looking at a replica of her own face. Except, buttons were stitched over the eyes, and red paint was added to the cheeks for blush. This creature's skin looked to be porcelan, from it's forehead, down to it's nose. However, it's mouth was clearly made of wood.

The wooden mouth started opening and closing, revealing it's straight white wooden teeth each time, and clicking as it closed. Homura heard the creature's voice, but the voice was completely out of sync with the slow moving jaw, as if it were being moved by an extremely unexperienced puppeteer. "They are the claras." The wooden mouth explained, with its button eyes unseeing. "They are carrying your coffin. They are eager for your funeral to begin."

"F-funeral?" Homura quickly got back to her feet and started backing away from this cheap replica of herself. "What are you talking about? I'm not dead!" She almost screamed the words.

The jaw started moving up and down at a quicker pace, and a cackling sounds came from somewhere back in the creature's throat. "No, not dead. Homura." Even though it was speaking, the cackling continued, as if it could speak and laugh at the same time, but Homura soon realize the sound was actually the squeaking of the wooden hinges which moved its jaw. "Death is no fitting end for us. This is the day I waited so long for. This is the day you and I finally will walk as one. You're not going to die, Homura. It's just the opposite. We are about to be born."

"No!" Homura screamed, still backing away and shaking her head. "Never! I can't become a witch! I-if that happens..." Tears were rolling from her eyes once again, further wetting her already damp cheeks. "Everything I fought for… It'll all…"

"Be for nothing?" The witch asked. The jaw suddenly snapped shut. The crimson threads which ran through the center of her button eyes began to loosen, the buttons tilted downward, no longer held tight to her face, and the loose ends of the threads hung past her porcelain nose. "Homura, you should realize it was always going to end this way. This is the fate of all Magical Girls. When they see this cruel evil life for what it is, despair is the only answer."

The witch raised to her feet. Her face, even with the broken buttons, still stared at Homura as it's legs moved and walked around the chair, until it's head once again lined up with it's body. "Don't fear it Homura. There is no more need for fear." She reached her hand out to Homura.

"No… I don't want to be a witch! Please just leave me alone."

It's wooden jaw stopped moving, but Homura could still hear it speaking, as if directly into her mind. "Don't you understand? Your soul is in turmoil, your power has been stripped from you. There is no hope. The false hope has been destroyed." The witch's head tilted to the side. "That's your power. The gift your wish has granted you. The power of false hope. You should understand better than anyone, the true nature of fate."

The witch's hand raised into the sky, and she flicked her wrist. With the movement of her wrist, the clouds above them parted and made a circular opening that allowed them to see the pitch black sky that laid behind, dotted with thousands of stars.

With another flick of her wrist, the stars brightened, turning the black canvas that surrounded them a deep shade of purple, and then with a flash of white they disappeared, leaving the opening completely black again, without one single star dotting it anymore.

"This is the future." The witch explained, "The light of those stars could have been suns: bringing life to millions of creatures. They could have been planets. They will all despair. From the smallest life form, to the brightest star... all things end in despair. It is the same for you. Your false hope doesn't allow you to see this."

Homura fell down to her knees, her hand still squeezing her shoulder, and her head was shaking. "No… there could have been a happy ending. I was so close this time. I was finally there." Her tears rolls off her cheeks and landed on the red petals of the spider lilies that surrounded her. "One more time… that's all I need!" Her teeth gritted together. "Just one more repeat and I can finally do it!"

The witch walked over to her, and kneeled down beside her. Homura just stared at the flowers, not wanting to look directly at her porcelain replica. "I told you. Your flaw is that you only see the present. It strengthens your false hope, because you are unable to see the eventual despair of all that is around you. Even given the perfect outcome with all your conditions met, it won't change what's at the end of the road... you can only lengthen the distance to that end."

"Shut up… just stop it. If things are as you say, then what would be the point of living in the first place? What would be the point of anything?"

"There is none. When at the end of every road lies despair, all hope is false."

Homura shook her head. "There's no way, I can't accept that. There's just no way I can accept something like that!"

The witch's hand reached down, and plucked one of the flowers out of the ground. It held the flower out to Homura, staring at her with it's broken button eyes. Homura refused to look back at her.

"Why does the false hope blind you so? You always think it will be better next time. It never is."

"This time was different." Homura said.

Homura saw that the witch's hand was changing. It's skin became tighter against it's bone, then gradually started to melt away and drip like candle wax. A skeletal hand held onto the red spiderlily, and it's red petals began to wither up and turn brown.

" _Then show me."_

* * *

"Sounds like things are going well with Kuzuko-Sensei's new boyfriend." Madoka comment as she and Sayaka walked down the street together after school. Sayaka had her school bag slung over her shoulder, and Madoka carried hers with both hands folded in front of her.

"I'll give it a week." Sayaka said with a grin, "Just wait, by this time next week she is going to ask Nakizawa some kind of loaded question about proper dinner etiquette or something…" Sayaka sighed, "I kind of feel sorry for the guy."

Madoka laughed, "It does seem that she tends to pick on him when it comes to those types of situations, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, sure does." Sayaka said, returning the laughter. "And I mean, don't get me wrong, I hope things work out. But Sensei doesn't exactly have the best track record as far as relationships go, you know?"

"Well I guess that's true… Oh! Look!" Madoka suddenly started running ahead. Sayaka raised an eyebrow in confusion, and saw Madoka set her bag down then bend over to pick something up.

"What is it?" Sayaka asked, catching up to her.

Madoka turned around, holding a black cat under its arms. She held it up and showed it to Sayaka. "It's Amy!"

"Amy?" Sayaka thought back, "Oh yeah, so this is the cat you were telling me about?"

"Yup!" Madoka said with a smile, "Whenever I'm on my way to meet up with you and Hitomi before school, I usually see Amy and give her a little part of my lunch." Madoka hugged the cat close to her face, and Amy responded with a small headbutt against Madoka's cheek. "Isn't she the cutest thing in the world?" Madoka asked as she set Amy back down on the sidewalk.

Sayaka kneeled down and held her hand out to pet the cat. Amy started pacing back and forth under her hand and purring. "Well she's certainly very sociable." Sayaka laughed, petting her. "Especially for a stray, they are usually a bit more skittish about being picked up like that."

"I don't know, I guess it's possible she has a home somewhere around here." Madoka said. Amy rounded back over to her and rubbed against her leg. "That's why mama won't let me adopt her, she says I can't unless I know for sure she doesn't already belong to someone else."

"Oh yeah, that's a good point. Guess her fur is pretty well kept, so it's possible she isn't a stray after all."

"Yeah and it doesn't look like she is starving or anything, so I guess it's alright. Personally, I think she is just a professional moocher." Madoka laughed, "Honestly, who could say no to that adorable little face?" Madoka kneeled her head down lower, and Amy rose up onto her hind legs to headbutt Madoka under her chin, then returned to all fours and continued pacing around.

"Oh man! That's too cute!" Sayaka said, "Hang on, I gotta get a picture. See if you can get her to do it again." Then she started digging around in her school bag, searching for her phone.

Just as the phone was coming out of her schoolbag, Amy's head shot up. She stopped pacing around, and her ears twitched.

"Huh?" Madoka's own head went up, and she started listening for something. It didn't take long for Sayaka to hear it as well. There was the repetitive drone of a base line gradually getting louder and louder.

Sayaka's eyebrows suddenly furrowed down into an annoyed expression. "Ah, it's those punks again." She said, as she stood all the way up with her phone in her hand. "They drive right by my house all the time blasting that damn music, not to mention going way over the speed limit in a neighborhood with little kids running around! Don't they realize how unsafe that is? On top of that, it's just plain inconsiderate!"

Madoka frowned as she stood as well, and looked down the street. Amy stayed still, just staring up at the sky with wide anticipating eyes, and her little ears twitching. They could see the car in question slow as it approached a stop sign at the end of the street, then it turned and started heading down the street right towards them.

Sayaka's frown deepened for a moment, but then her eyes widened mischievously. A grin hit her face as she glanced down to the phone that was in her hand, and said "Oh… I got em' now!" Then she quickly started sliding her finger around on the screen of her phone. "I'm going to get a video of them speeding and send it right to the police! Along with their license plate number."

Madoka didn't seem as enthused. She respected Sayaka's morality, and her eagerness to do the right thing. At the same time though, Madoka often found it a little concerning that she often put her own well being in jeopardy for the sake of others. This wasn't _exactly_ one of those cases, but Sayaka's level of enthusiasm still somehow seemed a tad alarming to Madoka. It's something she had trouble talking to Sayaka about, because she wasn't specifically doing anything wrong which Madoka could point a finger at. It was more like an abstract feeling she got when Sayaka was like this, which was difficult to put into words.

"Yeah, I got these jerks now." Sayaka said under her breath. She was watching their car through the screen of her phone, but holding it at an angle so it would just look like she was writing a text message. As they got closer, their music felt like it was getting louder and louder, and Madoka could practically feel the bass thumping her heart.

All of a sudden, when a particularly high bass note was hit, Amy flinched and ran away as if trying to escape an attacker. Madoka glanced down, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the little black animal dart out into the street — right in the path of the car!

"Oh no!" Sayaka shouted, losing the careful focus she had with her camera as she extended her hand.

"AMY!" Madoka screamed. It was clear that Amy would be hit by the car, the driver was glancing to the back seat, saying something to one of his friends, and Amy slowed her pace as her small head turned to see the oncoming monstrosity. Suddenly, she was like a deer in headlights, she was going to be hit, and there was nothing either of them could do!

However, they hadn't noticed before, but there must have been someone walking along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street who saw what was happening. She was already in a full tilted sprint when Madoka noticed her incredibly long black hair trailing behind her like a superheros cape. She dove out into the street and almost seemed to fall on top of Amy as she rolled onto her shoulder. For a moment, Madoka thought she was about to witness something even more horrible than a poor innocent cat getting hit by a car, but it only lasted a very brief moment because the girl finished her maneuver and rolled out of the way so quickly, it must have been less than a second.

The car zipped by, and the girl was left crouching down on the street with her arms hugged tightly against her chest. Her black hair fell forward and completely veiled her face. "OH! Are you alright?" Madoka said, quickly running to her side.

Sayaka ran after the car. "HEY!" She yelled, "That was a hit and run!" She started waving her phone in the air at them, "I've got it all on video!" The driver of the car didn't seem to care, in fact, the engine roared even louder as the car took off down the street. Sayaka couldn't believe what she had just witnessed... but more importantly… She turned and quickly ran back to the girl. "Is she alright?" And was prepared to dial one-one-nine for an ambulance.

The girls head lifted up, and one hand came up to brush her hair away from her face. She looked up at Madoka with the cat safely tucked into her arms, and smiled.

Her skin looked so soft and smooth. It was pale, making it a rather sharp contrast with her black hair, but this added a certain mysterious quality to the girl. Then Madoka looked into her eyes, and felt a strange fluttering feeling in her heart. There was strength in those eyes, yet at the same time, the curve of her lips gave her a compassionate aura.

Madoka blushed, and couldn't help one foot taking a step back. "A-are you ok?" Madoka asked, clasping her hands at her chest.

"Yes. I'm fine." The girl said, as she rose back to a full stand with Amy still held securely against her chest. Her voice matched Madoka's impression of her. Soft and caring, yet powerful with a level of hidden strength. Amy's little head popped up and her eyes glanced around anxiously. "Looks like this little one will be ok as well. She's just a little frightened." She smiled down at the cat one more time, then held it out to the blushing girl. "Here."

"Thanks…" Madoka said, her voice a tad absent as she accepted the cat back into her arms. Then when she saw the girls lip raise into a smirk, Madoka's blush deepened and she quickly shook herself out of it. "I-I mean," She bowed her head down slightly, "Thank you so much!"

"Yeah, nice move." Sayaka said. "That was kind of totally crazy, and I don't know how you did it, but I'm glad it worked out."

"Yes…" The girl said slowly, "I just happened to be walking by, and when I saw what was about to happen I just reacted."

"Do you live around here?" Madoka asked. "I don't think I've seen you around before."

"Well… not really, I was just… out for a walk."

Sayaka raised an eyebrow at the vague response, but Madoka didn't seem to notice. Madoka, still holding Amy with one arm, said. "Well, I'm Madoka Kaname!"

Sayaka followed suite, "Um, Sayaka Miki."

"Homura Akemi. It's nice to meet both of you." She looked Madoka up and down for a moment, making Madoka blush a little more, and said, "That uniform. Is it for Mitakihara Middle School?"

"Uh-um… Yes!" Madoka laughed nervously, tilting her head to the side slightly and smiling. Sayaka noticed this, looking back and forth between the two of them, then tried to hide the sudden grin on her face.

"I see…" Homura's eyes sank to the left for a moment as she thought something over. Then she returned her gaze on Madoka with that same cool expression, "I'm actually transferring to that school on monday… It would be nice if we ended up in the same class together."

"Yes, that would be great!" Madoka laughed.

"Well… I actually need to get going now." Homura said, "There's something…" Her eyes shifted around as she seemed to think over something, "Something important I need to go do."

"Oh… well, ok." Madoka said with a smile, although there was a touch of disappointment in her voice.

"Hey, ok. Guess we'll be seeing you around then. Right, transfer student?" Sayaka had a bit of a teasing smile but it earned her a blank expression from the tall ravenette and forced the grin away from her face.

"Yes…" Homura quickly put her smile back on and bowed her head to each of the two girls, "Goodbye Miki-san, Kaname-san…" Then she reached her hand out to the cat that was cradled in Madoka's arms and scratched her behind the ears. "and Amy."

Sayaka suddenly took a step back, and glanced down at her phone. She got a strange feeling all of a sudden, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Amy let out a small meow, as if she were also trying to give a farewell.

After parting ways, Madoka glanced back down the street a few times to get a last look at the girl who would be transferring into their school soon. "Well… she was cool." Madoka ventured, breaking the brief silence that came between them.

"Huh? Oh… yeah." Sayaka responded, suddenly being pulled out of a deep thought.

"Are you ok, Sayaka?" Madoka asked. "You seem a little distant all of a sudden."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sayaka said, laughing it off. "It's just… How did she know the cat's name was Amy?"

"What?" Madoka looked at her with a confused expression. "One of us must have said it, right?"

"Yeah… right." Sayaka forced a smile back on her face but it was clear she was still thinking about something. "Anyway, when I get home I'll see how much of that I got on camera… I kind of lost focus once Amy jumped out in the street, but maybe I have enough to help the police with an investigation on those jerks."

* * *

The classroom filled with chatter as the last of the students filled in, just a few minutes left before class would begin. Sayaka sat backwards in her chair, with one leg folded under herself so she could talk with Madoka and Hitomi who sat behind her. "Anyway, turns out the video I tried to take was useless." Sayaka explained with a sigh. "It's way out of focus, you can't see I thing… Guess I really dropped the ball on that one, huh?" She laughed it off, but seemed troubled.

"That's not true Sayaka." Madoka said, "You tried at least." She also thought to point out that she should take it easier on herself, because it wasn't exactly her responsibility to deal with this in the first place.

"I know… It's just what those punks are doing is dangerous. What if they end up hurting someone? We almost witnessed something like that the other day."

"I'm kind of having a hard time imagining it, though." Hitomi said, "I mean, the girl who grabbed the cat out of the way. Something like that is like something you would see on TV, but it's hard to believe someone would jump infront of a car like that in real life."

Sayaka grinned, "What? You think we're lying to you?"

"No, of course not." Hitomi said with a slight tilt of her head, "The way you two put it, it just sounds really impressive is all."

"Yeah, it was totally crazy. I got a little bit of it on video, but like I said it's way out of focus so you can't really tell what's going on. I can show it to you after class."

"Sure." Hitomi said, "I'd like to see it."

The chattering in the class petered into silence when Kuzuko-Sensei cleared her throat. Sayaka turned around and sat in her chair properly, and all the remaining students took their seats as well.

"Ok, class! Listen up because this is important!" Kuzuko practically shouted as she addressed the class. She sliced her pointer through the air as she spoke, making a sharp _whooshing_ sound. "What is the proper way to fry an egg? Sunnyside up or down? NAKIZAWA!" She jabbed her pointer in the direction of the boy who was sitting in the front row of the class.

"Uh-uh-um… well…" Nakizawa stuttered, quickly thinking it through. "Well, I mean… either way is fine… right?" He ducked down into his shoulders, tensing up and praying that was an acceptable answer.

Further back in the class, Sayaka turned to Madoka with a grin and whispered, "Called it."

"Heh, yeah I guess so." Madoka agreed, closing her eyes and tilting her head to the side with a slight smile.

"THAT IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!" Kuzuko shouted, waving her pointer around violently. "Therefore, girls, you should _never_ get involved with a shallow man who complains about how his _eggs_ are prepared. And boys! If you find yourselves with a strong opinion on it one way or another…" Her rage reached it's peak as she snapped her pointer in half and shouted, "I SUGGEST YOU KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!"

If there had been any chattering left in the classroom, it was now completely silenced. A rather uncomfortable atmosphere filled the air as Kuzuko stood at the front of the class with her head down and a dark aura forming around her. Then, she suddenly straightened her posture, clapped her hands together, and spoke in a cheery voice which was the polar opposite of the one she was just using. "Now that we've got _that_ out of the way! We have a new student transferring into our class today!" She turned to the doorway and called out into the hall. "You can come in now!"

With that, the class erupted into a wave of hushed chattering. It had been a long time since their school had a transfer student, so naturally everyone was pretty excited. A few other students were questioning why this didn't come _before_ her rant about frying eggs.

Madoka and Sayaka glanced towards each other. "Transfer student?" Sayaka asked.

"Do you think it could be her?" Madoka said, then they both looked forward as that mysterious black haired girl from the other day entered the classroom. Sayaka and Madoka looked at each other. Madoka smiled, and Sayaka gave her a thumbs up.

"Hey." Hitomi said, leaning forward to address her two friends. "Is that the girl you were telling me about?"

"Sure is!" Sayaka answered. Then they all returned their focus to the front of the room and the class quieted down so Kuzuko-Sensei could introduce the new girl.

"This is Homura Akemi." She explained as she wrote the name out in hiragana on the whiteboard. "She has just recently been released from the hospital, and therefore has been out of school for a while, so be sure to help her out if she needs it. Now then, Homura, is there anything you would like to say to the class?"

Homura, without a word, turned to the whiteboard and used the back of her hand to erase her name. She then picked up a spare stylus and rewrote her name using the Kanji for 'flame'. She turned back to the class, her facial expression remaining completely neutral. The majority of the students seemed rather impressed, and started talking amongst themselves once again.

Sayaka leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head, "Eh, showoff."

Hitomi laughed, "She does seem a tad eccentric doesn't she?"

"Yeah she does." Sayaka said, "What do you think Madoka?" She didn't get a response right away, so she looked over to the pinkette who was staring at the new girl with an expression that showed she was quite obviously lost in thought. "Eh… Madoka?"

"Huh?" Madoka asked, suddenly snapping out of it. "Um, yeah sure!" She said with a smile; It was clear that she didn't _actually_ hear the question.

The class quieted down again as Homura bowed before them and spoke. "Thank you all for welcoming me. I hope we have a good year together."

When she raised back up, Kuzuko asked her to find an empty seat. Homura looked around, and her eyes set over in Madoka and Sayaka's direction. Madoka put a hand up and waved, and Sayaka put up the peace sign with a grin. Homura returned the gestures with a smile and a nod. There were no empty seats near them, however, so she had to choose one near the front of the class, a few rows down from the two girls who were already acquainted with her.

The class went on normally after that, with nothing notable happening until about thirty minutes into the class when Homura was asked solve a math problem. She walked to the front with a stoic expression on her face, she picked the stylus up right away without even taking a minute to think it over, and then she started working out the solution. Her hand didn't stop once, until the answer was written underneath the solution and underlined. She brushed her hair back, turned on her heels, and returned to her seat without a word.

Once again, the class had been taken by the new girl and a soft wave of impressed whispering brushed throughout. Kuzuko adjusted her glasses as she looked over what Homura had written, also barely able to believe how quickly she had done it.

"Wow…" Madoka said under her breath as she watched the tall girl return to her seat.

Sayaka seemed less impressed, with folded arms and a slight frown, she muttered "Wasn't she suppose to have been out of school for a while?"

"Maybe she was home schooled in the hospital?" Hitomi offered.

"Yeah… must have been…" Sayaka said.

After class, there was a free period. Madoka shifted in her seat, glanced over to Sayaka quickly and then back over to Homura, wanting to get up and go talk to her. However, before she could even get up from her desk she saw that Homura was getting swarmed by a group of girls who wanted to talk to her. Madoka frowned, and started rearranging some papers on her desk.

At the front of the class, Homura answered the questions the girls were throwing at her with a calm tone and not much expression on her face.

"So, what school did you go to before this?" Said the first girl.

"A catholic school in Tokyo." Homura answered.

"Are you going to join any clubs?" Asked another.

"You're hair looks so great!" Said a third girl, "What kind of shampoo do you-"

"Sorry," Homura said, cutting her off in mid sentence. "I'm actually not feeling so well all of a sudden. I should go to the nurse's office."

"Oh…" The girls looked amongst each other uncertainly, until one said. "Sorry, um… would you like us to take you there?"

"No, that won't be necessary." Homura said in her stoic tone as she stood. She glanced toward the back of the room, looking right through the wall of girls who were standing around her. Two of them shuffled out of the way, clearing a path so that Homura could set her eyes on Madoka. Madoka made eye contact with her from across the room, and when she saw Homura's lips raise into a smile she started to blush. "I'll just ask the nurses aid to take me." She explained to the girls. Then she started walking over to Madoka, leaving the girls to look uncertainly amongst each other and wonder if they had offended her.

"Hey! Transfer student!" Sayaka said with a grin as Homura approached.

"Hello." Homura said, slightly bowing her head to the group. "It's good to see the two of you again. I'm glad we ended up in the same class."

"Yeah, me too!" Madoka said with a laugh.

"Oh, and this is our friend Hitomi." Sayaka said, nodding back to the green haired girl.

"It's good to meet you." Homura said, with her characteristically emotionless voice.

"Yes, you too." Hitomi said with a smile, "They told me about how you saved that cat the other day. It sounded quite impressive."

Homura nodded, then looked over to Madoka. "Madoka Kaname. You are the nurses aid for this class, correct?"

"Yes, I am." Madoka said with a smile.

"That's good, I was hoping you could escort me to the nurse's office."

"Oh, you mean right now?"

Homura nodded, "If it's not too much trouble."

"Sure, it's no problem!" She said as she stood up, then blushed when she realized she had been just tad too enthusiastic about it. When she glanced back to her friends and noticed Sayaka's smirk and Hitomi's pondering expression, her blush deepened. "Um, I-I'll be right back." She said to them, quickly trying to brush it off. Then she followed Homura who was already walking toward the front of the classroom.

* * *

Madoka followed Homura out in the hall, and noted with only half a mind that Homura started walking in the correct direction without needing to wait for her lead. Madoka walked a few paces behind the tall girl, and when her hands started fidgeting together she quickly straightened her arms to stop herself from doing it. Why did she suddenly feel so nervous?

More importantly, she was suppose to be leading Homura to the nurse's office, so she sped up her pace a little until she was walking alongside her, "So, the nurse is just up this hall and…"

"I know where it is." Homura said, in her cool controlled way.

Madoka glanced over to the tall ravenette, "Huh?" Homura's eyes moved to look down at the shorter girl, and the corner of her mouth raised into a smile. "Um…" Homura's smile somehow put the blush back on Madoka's face, and she couldn't help glancing down again. "Then... why would you ask me to take you?"

"I didn't want to risk those other girls insisting on escorting me there."

"Oh, I see…" Madoka said under her breath, "So that's the reason."

"Hm?" Homura asked, having not caught what Madoka just said.

"Oh, nothing." Madoka laughed and brushed it off. "And sorry about those girls, they're really harmless I assure you. We just don't get too many transfer students here, so I guess you can see why they were pretty excited."

"That makes sense."

"Besides, you're just so… well… um…" Madoka once again caught herself fumbling over her words, and felt herself becoming increasingly anxious as she tried to think her way out of it.

"You know…" Homura said slowly, letting Madoka of the hook and ignoring her untactful demeanor. "There's... actually another reason I wanted you to take me." Homura suddenly stopped walking, and looked out the window to her right. The sunlight's yellow rays reflected off her dark hair, creating a subtle aura of light around the girl. Madoka watched her, suddenly feeling a certain level of anticipation. There was something in the tone of Homura's voice. "Well… you see… I also wanted a chance to spend some time with you."

Homura looked away from the window, and back to Madoka, and her usually stoic face now held it's own shade of blush. The corner of her mouth fidgeted slightly; she was trying to smile, but it was coming off quite awkwardly.

Madoka suddenly realized why she had been so nervous herself, and seeing this new expression on Homura's face suddenly washed all of that away. Homura's strong controlled demeanor was admirable, but at the same time it made her somewhat intimidating. This new expression humanized her, and aside from that; there was the thing she actually said.

"You wanted to spend time with me?" Madoka asked, somewhat surprised by the words.

"Yes. You seemed like an interesting person, so..."

 _Like an interesting person?_ It was such a strange thing to say, and when Madoka saw Homura's eyes shift to the side, she could tell Homura felt embarrassed about the way she put it. This girl certainly was complex; from a distance she seemed so controlled and unshakable. Up close in personal, however, the complete opposite side was showing. Or maybe its that the cool controlled demeanor acted as a kind of mask, and if that were the case why was she taking it off now? Under the mask this other side of her was actually kind of… cute.

"Eh, I mean… nothing…" Homura said. And suddenly, the mask was back up.

Madoka saw Homura's uncertainty, and she quickly stepped forward and grabbed onto her hand "I'm glad you said so!" She said with a big smile, "Actually… ever since the other day I was hoping to get to know you as well. When you saved Amy, that was so amazing."

"Well, that was nothing, really." Homura looked down at Madoka's hand around hers, trying to hold onto her controlled posture, but any chance of her hiding the blush on her face was now gone. The fact that she was trying to hide it in the first place made her even cuter. "Like I said, I just saw what was going to happen, and I reacted."

"It was still great though." Madoka said with a laugh, and finally let go of her hand and let her off the hook. "You are really good at math too. Everyone in class was impressed by how well you solved that problem. Were you in the advanced classes in your last school?"

"Well… I'm just familiar with that type of equation, is all. I… Actually hadn't been to school in a while... but, my grades were always ordinary."

"I see…" Madoka remembered that Kuzuko-Sensei mentioned Homura had been in the hospital for a while. Madoka wondered how much time she had to spend in the hospital, and what her condition was. Looking at her, she looked strong and healthy. Actually, she looked to be in GREAT shape, and Madoka got a small hint of her athleticism when she saved Amy. She figured it might be rude to ask her personal questions about her health though, so she thought of something else to say. "So who do you live with? Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"No…" Homura said in her characteristically dull tone, "Actually, I live alone. I don't really have any family."

"Oh…" Homura's expression was hard to read, it usually was. Aside from when Madoka grabbed her hand, and her emotions ended up being painted all over her face, Homura never seemed to drop her poker face. "That's… kind of sad." Madoka said with a low tone, not really thinking it over.

"No. It's fine, really. I'm pretty much use to it." Then when Homura looked over to her and put on that cool smile, Madoka felt incredibly sorry for her. There was a lot of loneliness behind that smile, and all of a sudden the complete picture of who this girl was became clear.

"Hey, um…" Madoka thought for a moment. "Me, Sayaka, and Hitomi were going to go to a nearby cafe after school. They make really great milkshakes there _\- that's what I usually get -_ Um…" Madoka looked up at her and smiled, "Would you like to come too?"

"Well… I…" Homura's eyes shifted to the side as she thought about it, and Madoka could tell she was trying to come up with a reason to turn down the offer.

"It'll be a lot of fun." Madoka added, and gave her the sweetest smile she could to push her along.

"Well, alright. I'd love to come." Homura finally said.

"Great! Let's meet up after class and then we can all walk there together!"

They both stopped as they reached the nurse's office, and turned to each other. They held eye contact for a while, each just taking in the others expression. Madoka felt her heart fluttering in her chest, but the nervousness she felt around Homura was completely gone now. She just felt this intense happiness to know she was getting along with her. She wasn't sure what it was, but she never quite felt like this for anyone else before, and she hoped that Homura felt the same way.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you then." Homura said, with a real true smile on her face.

"Yup! Can't wait!" Madoka said, and they parted ways as Homura entered the nurse's office.

* * *

Throughout the rest of the day, Homura continued to be the center of attention in every class. Madoka didn't end up seated next to her in any of their classes, to her disappointment, but hoped to get a chance to hang out with her during gym. That ended up not happening either, since Homura displayed incredible athleticism and found herself swarmed by both admirers and club leaders trying to recruit her. While Madoka was off to the side with Sayaka doing their stretches, she overheard the teacher say, "She crushed every school record." under his breath.

As soon as the bell rang at the end of the last class of the day, Madoka got up and walked right over to Homura's desk before anyone else had a chance to. "So, are we still on?" She asked, with a cheery smile. There was something in Homura's body language as she gathered her papers into her bag that hinted she may answer in the negative, and it caused Madoka's smile to fade somewhat.

"Actually… I'm very sorry but I forgot there is an errand I had to run after school."

Madoka frowned, "Oh… is that right?"

"Yes..." Homura said as she finished cleaning off her desk and lifted the strap of her bag up over her shoulder. "Maybe we can do it some other time?"

"Oh, of course." Madoka did feel a little disappointed but she put her smile back on anyway. "We are classmates now after all, so it's not like we won't be seeing each other around."

"I… do feel bad about this."

"Oh no, don't. It's fine, really!" Madoka assured her, "You can't help it if you are busy."

"Well, which cafe was it anyway?" Homura asked.

"Starside Cafe, it's inside of that big shopping mall that's close to here. If you enter through the south side of building you'd see it right away."

"Hm..." Homura paused as she seemed to be thinking something over. "Actually, my errand won't take me too long, and it should bring me right by there. Maybe I could just meet you there?"

"That'd be great!" Madoka said, becoming cheery again.

"Well, I can't guarantee I'll make it… I have to see how things go." Homura thought it over for a moment then asked, "Here, how about you give me your phone number so I can text you?"

"Sure." Madoka said, then looked confused when Homura didn't pull out her phone or something to write with.

"I've got a good memory." Homura said with a smile as she pointed to the side of her head.

Madoka laughed, liking to see Homura's subtly humorous side, and then gave her the number.

She regrouped with Sayaka and Hitomi, and they started walking to the mall together, as was their ritual to do at least once a week after school.

"So, the transfer student bailed on us?" Sayaka joked as they were leaving the school grounds.

"Well, she said she had something to do right after school, but she might be catching up with us later." Madoka said.

"Ah, ok then." Sayaka said, "Ah Hitomi, I almost forgot, you still need to see the video." Then she pulled her phone out of her bag and started sliding her finger around on the screen. "Like I said, I kind of lost focus, but you'll get the gist of it."

"Oh alright." Hitomi said. She had heard her friends talking about the event all day and was curious to see it for herself. She took the phone and watched the video as she continued to walk with the group.

It was only a little over a minute long, and ended shortly after Sayaka shouted: ' _Hey! That's a hit and run!'_

"Wow." Hitomi said, as she handed the phone back to Sayaka. "It's hard to see everything, but that did look pretty close."

"Heh yeah, I told you that chicks like totally nuts." Sayaka said with a laugh, "I'm glad she did it though, and at least she didn't end up getting hurt or anything."

"Although…" Hitomi spoke carefully, as if she were unsure about what she was about to say. "It did kind of seemed like she just appeared out of nowhere…"

"Yeah, your telling me." Sayaka laughed, "Talk about right place at the right time? Right Madoka?"

"Yes, it sure was lucky. I didn't even notice her until she was already sprinting into the road." Madoka said, and returned the laugh.

"No… I mean…" Hitomi looked troubled, "It's like she just... _appeared._ "

Sayaka raised an eyebrow skeptically and let her shoulders hunch down. " _Ok…_ what the heck are you talking about Hitomi?"

Although she could come up with some pretty wild idea's on occasion, Hitomi was typically the more rational of the three of them, and her current attitude seemed a bit out of character. "Here, watch the video again… It's probably related to the poor quality from the camera moving around so much, but I did notice something rather strange."

All three of them stopped on a street corner and huddled around the phone as Sayaka played the video again.

The camera stayed in perfect focus as it followed the car down the street, they could even hear the sound of it's music playing through the small cellphone speakers. "Watch closely." Hitomi said, right after they heard Madoka yell ' _Amy!'_ through the phone.

Then the camera became unfocused, and swayed left and right. During its sway, it caught Homura sprinting out into the road. "Huh." Sayaka said, then backed the video up by ten seconds so they could rewatch Homura's appearance.

"Um…" Madoka looked up at her two friends once the scene played through again. "It... sure looks like she just appeared out of nowhere, huh? I-I mean, the camera isn't very well focused, but…"

Hitomi shrugged, "A couple frames were probably lost, plus she was moving fast. It all probably just so happened to get timed just right to make it _look_ like she's just appearing there."

"Yeah, but the camera pans all along the sidewalk a few seconds beforehand, and she's _nowhere to be…_ " Sayaka trailed off and let a grin hit her face. "Heh, yeah this is totally stupid. What? Are we saying she just magically appeared somehow? Come on, let's hurry up and get to the cafe." They all laughed and put the phone away, then crossed the street together and continued their walk to the mall.

On the way there, Hitomi started to go off on relaying a certain psychology lesson to her friends about how the human mind tends to try to sort things out when it sees something it doesn't understand. She explained this by telling them about an experiment involving a rorschach test. The experiment would be to take black spots that look like a bird then put a bunch of extra spots to cover it up. The idea would be to show the test subject the altered version and then take away the extra spots to make the bird more obvious, and see how the subject answers.

Sayaka didn't totally understand the point of the experiment but it reminded her of something. "Oh hey, on the biology test today, what did you guys answer for number seven? It was the one that had something about _regulating muscle activity,_ or something."

"Cerebellum." Hitomi said.

"Ah, right!" Sayaka said, "I knew that, just couldn't quite remember the word. You know?"

When they arrived at the mall, there was a good sized crowd scattered throughout, and echoing chatter filled the air. They usually only came here on weekdays, because on weekends the mall tended to be totally packed to the point it was hard to get anywhere without having to push through a crowd, or wait in line forever whenever you wanted to buy something. Today was a good deal more crowded than a typical monday afternoon, probably because it was late in March and the weather was just starting to get nice again.

They rode the escalator up to the second floor, and then entered the cafe and took a table near the center of the room. When the waiter greeted them, Sayaka and Hitomi ordered smoothies for drinks, and Madoka got a black and white milkshake.

They spent the next half hour talking about school and gossiping about different things. When the subject of Kuzuko-Sensei's love life came up, Madoka had a lot to say. Her mom happened to be good friends with Kuzuko and therefore her teacher ended up being a common topic of conversation between them.

"Mama says the third month is the most critical point in a relationship. If it's not the real thing that's usually where it falls apart." Madoka explained. "If it gets past the third month it's usually ok for at least another year, though."

"What happens after a year?" Hitomi asked.

"Hm…" Madoka thought it over. "I'm not sure, mom didn't say."

"Well, Sensei still needs to clear the three month barrier, so I don't think she is going to have to worry about that." Sayaka said with a grin, and they all shared a laugh which was interrupted when Madoka's phone played a quick jingle, signaling she received a text message.

She flipped open her phone, and subconsciously let a smile hit her lips when she saw it was from Homura.

' _Hey, I'm right down the street from the mall. Are you still there?'_

Madoka texted her back right away. ' _Yup! We're still in the cafe I told you about. Just enter through the south entrance and you can't miss it.'_

' _Ok I'll be there soon.'_

Although she didn't have anything else to say, Madoka found herself rereading the three short messages over and over again, until Sayaka pulled her back into reality. "Eh… Madoka?"

"Hm?" Madoka asked, looking up from her phone. "What is it?"

Sayaka laughed, "Heh, nothing. You were just kind of in your own world for a second there. So what's up?"

"Oh… I was just talking to Homura. She is going to meet us here in a few minutes."

"Oh, cool." Sayaka said.

"Hm…" Hitomi suddenly got her pondering expression on her face. "You just called her by her first name. That was pretty quick, wasn't it?"

Sayaka, glanced over to Hitomi and saw a slight sparkle in her eye. ' _Heh, alright I gotcha.'_ Sayaka thought, ' _I'll play along.'_

"Yeah, and come to think of it…" Sayaka said, putting on her interrogation face and leaning forward toward Madoka. "Ever since you met Homura the other day you've been even more of a space cadet than usual."

"Huh? Th-that's not true." Madoka said.

"This kind of closeness right off the bat… You must have been soulmates from another life!" Sayaka teased.

"C-come on, you're being weird!" Madoka said back.

Madoka's face went bright red as Hitomi and Sayaka continued to laugh, and she found herself at a loss for words. Then, she saw the dark haired girl she had been waiting for come through the doorway, and start looking around. Madoka sat up in her chair, put her hand up and waved to catch Homura's attention. Sayaka and Hitomi glanced back, and stopped the fooling around to give a wave as well and invite her over.

"Hello." Homura said as she approached the group.

"Hey, how's it going?" Sayaka said.

"I'm glad you could make it! Here, take a seat." Madoka said, scooting down to make room for Homura to sit next to her.

"Thanks." Homura said, as she took note of their drinks and saw that the three of them were almost finished. "Sorry… looks, like I'm a little late."

"Don't worry about it," Madoka replied, "If you wanted to get anything we'll wait for you."

"Actually, I hate to be rude." Hitomi said, "But I'll have to leave soon myself."

"What is it this time?" Sayaka asked, "Singing or dance recital?"

"Tea ceremony." Hitomi said.

"Heh, stuff like that makes me glad I wasn't born a rich girl." Sayaka said with a laugh, then looked over to Homura across the table. "Hitomi here's usually the smart-girl of our group. But based on todays math lessons, it looks like you'll be giving her some competition. Right, transfer student?"

"Maybe just for this semester." Homura said, "I may be a little ahead of the rest of the class right now, but I don't think my math skills are anything out of the ordinary."

"Well, anyway." Hitomi said as she gathered her bag and stood up, "I really should be going now. See you all at school tomorrow."

"Goodbye Hitomi." Madoka said.

"Yup, see you later." Said Sayaka. Once Hitomi left, Sayaka addressed the other girls, "So, I wanted to head to the music store after this. You guys ok with that?"

"Sure, I'd like to go." Madoka said, then looked to Homura to confer with her.

"I don't have anything else to do for the rest of the day, so I'm fine with anything."

Then the waiter, a man with a thin goatee who looked to be in his early twenties, came back to the table. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you come in." He said to Homura. "Is there anything I can get for you?"

"Just an iced coffee to go, please." Homura said to him.

"Ok, coming right up." He said, then went back to fill the order.

"Sayaka, were you planning to get something for Kyouske?" Madoka asked.

"Yup." She said, "Whenever we are done I was going to go visit him. He had some kind of specialist come take a look at him today, so I wanted to see how that went."

"Kyosuke is Sayaka's friend who was involved in a pretty bad accident about half a year ago." Madoka explained to Homura, with a slight frown. "He lost mobility through most of his body, and no one is able to pinpoint exactly why that is."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Homura said, trying to sound compassionate but her words came off a bit dry.

"You recently got released from the hospital yourself, didn't you?" Sayaka asked.

"Yes. That's correct." The tone of her voice indicated she didn't want to talk much about it, so Sayaka and Madoka both left the topic alone. Although, since bringing it up, Homura seemed deeper in thought and even less sociable than she usually is. Madoka and Sayaka ended up chatting back and forth to each other while Homura sat there silently. Madoka tried to pull her back into the conversation, but didn't have much luck.

Once she received her iced coffee they all paid for their drinks and were ready to leave.

"Sayaka." Homura said, just before they were all getting ready to stand up, finally breaking her extended period of silence.

"Huh? What's up?" Sayaka asked.

Homura played with the lid of her coffee while she thought it over for a moment. "Fate can sometimes seem cruel, but things have a way of happening as they are suppose to."

"Um…" Sayaka raised an eyebrow at her then glanced over to Madoka, who seemed equally at a loss for how to take that. "Eh, sorry but... what _exactly_ are you talking about now?"

"I'm referring to your friend. It can be tempting to want to change what life has handed you, but it's best to accept things as they are and simply do your best to deal with them using your own strength"

"I think what Homura's trying to say." Madoka started, "Is to make the best of a bad situation?"

"Hm…" Sayaka eyed Homura for a moment, her lips tightened together in some strange motion that wasn't sure if it wanted to form a smile or a frown. "Now I'm pretty curious about your story. So what _is_ your deal anyway?"

"Let's just say I can relate to what you must be going through."

Sayaka finally decided on a smile, and gave Homura a nod. "Heh, ok transfer student. I think I get what your saying… and thanks.."

"Anyway, we were going to go to the music store?" Homura asked as she stood, her voice became less ominous and returned to a more normal tone. Or, as normal of a tone as she could manage.

"Yup!" Madoka said, smiling. "Let's go!"

* * *

Once they were at the music store, Sayaka couldn't help but take notice of how clingy Madoka was being to Homura. Sayaka was browsing the CD section and peaked over the shelf to see both Madoka and Homura on the other side of the store, listening to music with each of them using one earbud from the same set of headphones. Sayaka and Hitomi had been picking on Madoka earlier just for fun, but she was starting to realise there may have been more reality to their jokes than they thought. She doubted that Hitomi realised this herself, however.

She could see they were talking to each other, but couldn't hear their words. Madoka had her usual bubbly demeanor as she explained something to the taller girl. Homura's eyes rolled around and a soft grin touched her face as she said something. Madoka paused, and stomped her foot as she shouted something back, which warranted a smile from the ravenette. Sayaka couldn't help smiling herself as she watched the scene. She didn't know Homura very well, but from what she could tell, Madoka was probably the only person who could create that kind of expression on that girl's otherwise emotionless face.

That's just the kind of girl Madoka was, though. It really wasn't possible to stay in a bad mood around the small pinkette. Sayaka didn't even need to watch Homura's interactions with her to know that; she knew from personal experience of Madoka's overwhelming powers of sweetness.

She still wasn't a hundred percent sure what to make of Homura. On one hand there had been nothing but positive things she could say about Homura, on the other however… there was just something _off_ about her. It wasn't something Sayaka could quite put a finger on, but her sudden closeness to Madoka after only a couple days struck her as odd.

Then there was her personality. All her words were nice, and she seemed polite… but there was a certain hollowness behind everything she did, almost as if she had been rehearsing parts in a play. Madoka didn't see it… Sayaka could, but that's only because the play wasn't being put on for her… it was being put on for her best friend.

 _You better be good to her,_ Sayaka thought as she watched Madoka and Homura start to laugh, resolving whatever minor dispute they had with each other a moment ago. _Otherwise you'll have to answer to me._

She grinned to herself and shook her head, realising it was possible she was just being overprotective. Homura was strange all right, but that didn't automatically mean it was in a bad way. There was some obvious lack of social skills, like when she tried to talk about Kyousuke earlier, but Sayaka thought the intentions behind her odd choice of words were pure.

After perusing the classical section a while longer, she finally managed to choose a CD. It was by a french composer whose work dated back to the early 1900's. Sayaka recognised the name from Kyosuke mentioning him before, and decided to go with that one, because she was pretty sure Kyousuke didn't actually own any of that particular composer's work.

With her purchase decided on, she went to rejoin her friends. She approached just as Madoka was saying, "Are you sure you don't have to be anywhere Homura? You keep checking the time."

Homura quickly returned the phone to her bag and glanced around. "No, I don't have to be anywhere…" Then she noticed Sayaka approaching and made her best attempt at a smile. Apparently her natural smiles were reserved only for Madoka. "Hey, is Madoka always this strange?" Homura said, "She kept thinking something was calling her name."

"Hey, don't laugh!" Madoka shouted at Homura. "I know how it sounds, but I'm serious!"

"Careful." Sayaka warned Homura, "She looks cute, but trust me, you don't want to end up incurring the wrath of _MAD_ oka."

"Heh, I'll keep that in mind." There it was again, that rehearsed way of speaking that Homura had. Once Sayaka started looking for it, it was so clearly there. Well, maybe it was just a result of her trying to overcome some kind of social awkwardness problem? The only problem with that theory, is nothing else about Homura's character fit the profile of someone with an issue like that.

"Aside from that, you'll have _me_ to deal with if you do cause problems for her." Sayaka meant to say it as a joke, but she realised it came off a bit more serious than she intended and quickly laughed to cover it up.

"I'll keep that in mind as well." Homura said pleasantly, but once again her words and the tone of her voice just seemed so fake. Something about it sent a chill running up Sayaka's spin, and the fact that she couldn't quite explain why that was made it even worse.

In the brief silence that followed, Homura glanced to the left, towards a large clock that was stationed on a wall.

"What about you?" Madoka said to Homura, maintaining a joking tone to her voice, completely oblivious to the tense atmosphere between her two friends. "You've been obsessively checking the time ever since we entered this store, yet insist you don't have anywhere to be."

"Sorry…" Homura said, "I guess it's just that…" her eyes shifted and she laughed, "It's nothing. Are we ready to go?"

"Sure, just give me a minute to pay for this." Sayaka said.

She turned to head for the cashier on the other side of the store, but then something happened.

Upon taking a step, she felt her knee buckle, and she almost stumbled. Her initial thought was that she put her foot down improperly, and accidentally sprained her ankle, but then she realised her whole body was shaking. It wasn't just _her_ body that was shaking, though; there was a scream, and she realised it was the whole store. "Wah, what the!?" She stumbled and caught herself on the wall. Was it an earthquake?

Then a loud bang erupted which rung her eardrums. She put her hands to her ears and screamed. When her hearing returned a moment later, screams were erupting through the store behind the layer of high pitched ringing that remained in her hearing. As she looked around, she saw people fleeing for the door, abandoning their bags on the ground and knocking over shelves in the process.

"Sayaka-chan!" She heard Madoka scream, as Homura and Madoka ran back over to her.

"I-is it an earthquake?" Sayaka said, as she glanced all around and the three schoolgirls huddled together.

"More like a bomb." Homura said, "Quickly, we'd better get out of here."

Sayaka and Homura started moving in pace with each other. Homura grabbed Madoka by the wrist and pulled the pinkette along. Apparently she was in shock from the situation, and wasn't reacting quite as quickly as her two friends.

"A-a bomb?" Madoka asked, "But w-why? And who?"

"Terrorism, that's that only explanation." Homura explained, "I've heard when they do things like this they usually coordinate multiple attacks at once. That's why we need to get out of here!"

"But why here?" Madoka said, but her friends ignored her and continued with trying to escape.

The front of the store soon became impassible over the wall of people who tried to funnel through the doorway. Homura and Sayaka both glanced around, until Sayaka pointed to the other side of the store. "The window!" She shouted.

Homura nodded, and the three started running in that direction. The window in question was big enough it nearly covered the whole wall, and looked out into the mall hallways where more people could be seen running for their lives. Inside the store, a few other customers caught wind of the school girl's plan and started moving toward the window with them.

A middle aged man came up behind their group. "We'll need something to break it." He said to them.

Homura slowed and pointed to a circular rack which held boxes of headphones. "Over there." She said.

Sayaka and the middle aged man, as well as a couple other customers went over to the rack and hoisted it up.

"On three!" The middle aged man shouted, and the four rocked it back and forth in sequence with each other as he counted down. With each movement, the headphones that were stored on the rack would fall off of their hooks. "ONE! TWO! THREE!"

The rack hit cleanly, and there was a loud crash as the window shattered and glass hit the floor. There were still some jagged edges clinging to the sides, so the middle aged man took off his overshirt and wrapped it around his hand for a glove and started punching away an opening. "You girls first." He said, and stayed close so he could help everyone through and also hopefully maintain order if another funneling situation started to occur.

Madoka, with Homura's help, was the first to go out. Then Homura herself, and Sayaka followed close behind. After that, they all started running for the entrance of the mall. They were up on the second floor and would need to find a way down to the first.

"Not the escalator." Homura said, "The situation is probably just as crowded there as inside the store. How else can we get downstairs?" They couldn't see the escalator from where they stood, but based on the number of people running in that direction it was clear she was right.

"The fire exits." Madoka said plainly, as if it should have been obvious.

"Of course." Homura said, "Let's go."

Before Sayaka followed them, she turned back to the middle aged man who was shouting at the group gathering around the window and helping people through one at a time. He wasn't very tall, but he had broad shoulders and a gruff beard. "I'm a cop!" He shouted at a particularly unruly customer, "Detective Ishida Tashikowara, so calm down and lets get everyone through here one at a time!"

"Hey mister!" Sayaka shouted at him, "Remind people to go for the fire exits!"

He gave her a nod as he helped a mother and her child over the window, then Sayaka turned and ran to follow after Madoka and Homura.

* * *

They all gathered in an empty area of the parking lot right outside of the mall, and watch as a cloud of smoke billowed out from over the rooftop. Things had calmed down now, and there were a good number of customers still hanging around the parking lot and watching from a distance, quietly whispering amongst each other and trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

Sayaka was on her phone, looking around the internet for an explanation but finding nothing. "I don't see anything about any other public places getting hit." She said. It was Homura's suggestion to look that up, as she explained that she heard from a documentary that terrorists usually coordinate multiple attacks to happen at once. "So far, there haven't been any reported casualties or even any injuries, though." Sayaka said, "So at least that's some good news."

"I-I…" Madoka shook her head, she was clearly very upset. "I don't understand why a place like this would get attacked though. We are not exactly a small city but there are much bigger ones than this… and why the mall?"

Homura shrugged, she seemed to be the least affected out of the three girls. "It could be anything. It could have been something as simple as a disgruntled employee… Or maybe someone lost their store from the mall's competition, and decided to bomb the place for revenge? Well, I'm sure the investigators will get to the bottom of this, at least we are all ok."

"Yeah…" Sayaka said. She was still in a bit of a daze herself. "Well… I dropped the CD I was going to get for Kyousuke, but I still want to go see him."

Madoka nodded, "I better call my mom. She knows we come here a lot, so I don't want her to worry when she sees this on the news. Homura, do you need a ride home? My mom will probably come get me and she can drop you off too."

"No, that's alright." Homura said, "I don't live far from here… But I'll wait with you until your mom arrives."

Madoka nodded, "Ok." Then she stepped away from the group so she could call home.

Before Sayaka took her leave, she turned back to Homura. "Crazy few days." She said, and let a grin come over her face. "It's starting to seem like trouble has a way of following you."

"I could say the same to you." Homura said.

A cold wind blew, and their skirts ruffled in the breeze as they stared each other down. Even after the bizarre situation they found themselves in a moment ago, she still felt as though she couldn't completely trust this girl. Based on the expression on Homura's face, the feeling was probably mutual. Although, it wasn't that they were exactly hostile with each other either. It was more like a silent acknowledgment of the others rivalry.

Sayaka put her hand up, and Homura did the same, and they gave eachother a high five. "Alright, guess I'll be seeing you around." Sayaka let a mocking smile come over her face, " _Transfer student."_

"Yes. I'll be seeing you." And with that, they parted ways.

Before Sayaka left the mall grounds, she looked back toward the burning building and all the emergency vehicles that surrounded it. She looked up towards the roof to watch the smoke for a moment, and she saw something. There was someone standing up there, wearing all yellow. Sayaka squinted her eyes to try and see it better; it was far away, but she thought it was a girl.

Without thinking about why, Sayaka glanced back to Homura, and saw that Homura was looking at the mysterious figure on the roof as well. Madoka finished her phone call and ran back over to Homura. Homura looked away, oblivious to the fact that Sayaka had been watching her this whole time.

Something else she found strange… when they were in the music store, as Madoka said, Homura had been obsessively checking the time every few minutes. After they made it to the parking lot, they watched the fire for almost an hour and Homura didn't check her phone once.

Sayaka looked back toward the roof of the mall, and the figure that had been standing there was now gone.

She shrugged her shoulders, and continued her walk to the hospital.

* * *

 **Sorry this chapter took a little while to come out. There were a few things that slowed me down, including getting pretty sick for a while, but I don't think the next chapter will take as long.**

 **I was thinking about responding to some of the reviews from last chapter here, but I really prefer to let the story speak for itself, and the review by** ' _ **Axius27's Ghost'**_ **already said most of what I** **might have said anyway. All I will say, is to those who are worried about the stories future: it is far from over. In fact, I kind of feel like it's just beginning.**

 **It's been a little over a year since I started writing on FFN, and I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished. I managed to write 300,000 words over the last year, and my goal is to do that again this year. If I can accomplish it, then both Perfect Crime and Test Subject One will either be complete, or pretty close to being so in a year's time. Of course, I tend to be a bit optimistic sometimes, but we'll see how things go. Ultimately, I don't want to drag this out for years on end and hopefully give readers a satisfying conclusion to each story some time in the** _ **not too distant**_ **future.**

 **Also, sorry if there is any disappointment about the level of plot progression in this chapter. There will probably be a couple more chapters like this, but a lot more should happen in the next one.**

 **Updated 6/24 *To add to this last part. I understand some readers may be frustrated with the pacing of these last two chapters. I didn't plan on taking two months to get this last chapter out, but like I said some things got in the way. If it seems like this story isn't going anywhere, then worry not. Like I said before, it's only about half way done and I have the rest of the story pretty well plotted out in my head. I didn't write myself into a corner or anything like that, and the story absolutely will continue.**

 **I'm also thinking I may stagger out the flashbacks, but I'll see how things go. Plot points are always pretty clear in my head, but actual chapter lengths usually are not, so I'll have to play it by year with the pacing.***

 **As always, thanks for reading!**

 **-Atomyst**


	20. Chapter 20

Everything became surprisingly normal again, despite the experience with the bombing. Although, Sayaka did continue with some independent internet research at home. She stumbled across all kinds of conspiracy theories related to the incident, and relaying her findings to her friends became part of her daily routine for a while.

Homura was still stuck at the front of the class most of the time, but would always join their group during lunch and after school, as well as during gym class. Of course, it was always about Madoka. Wherever Madoka went, Homura seemed to want to be there too, and vice versa.

Sayaka and Hitomi would sometimes joke about how close Madoka and Homura were becoming, and Sayaka figured Hitomi didn't realize how much truth there actually was to their gentle teasing.

Every day when Homura needed to take her daily trip to the nurse's office for her medication, Madoka would join her. Madoka didn't know what Homura's condition was, but it made her feel concerned.

"Don't worry about it." Homura said one day, when Madoka expressed her feelings.

"But… I don't know, the fact that you don't talk about it _makes_ me worry…" Madoka confessed, "It's like you are trying to protect me from something that might upset me, but that just makes me worry more because I can't help but think it's much worse than you are letting on."

Homura sighed as she slowed her pace, and turned to Madoka with her gentle smile. "I use to have a heart condition." She explained, "It's all better now, and I honestly don't even _need_ the medications anymore." Madoka didn't seem too convinced, and her frown deepened. "Really, at this point taking the medications is just for keeping up appearances, so they don't worry about letting me leave the hospital."

"But… It's really hard to believe that… I-I don't think you are lying to me… but…"

Homura's face fell into that deeper expression she would sometimes get. "Madoka… I don't want to lie to you. I've done that before, and…" Her eyes shifted, "I mean… this time I want to be more honest."

"This time?" Madoka asked, confused by Homura's words and her sudden change in expression. Homura's mouth opened, and closed again, like she wanted to say something but couldn't quite bring herself to. "Homura… if you want to tell me something…"

"Homura Akemi?" They both startled as someone interrupted their conversation. They hadn't noticed a girl had come around the corner, and she now approached Homura. She had yellow hair and, based off her uniform, she was a grade above them. Homura turned to her, and Madoka noticed the slight narrowing of Homura's eyes.

"Yes?" Homura asked.

The girl smiled softly, "I thought that was you."

Madoka looked back and forth between them. The blonde girl had a soft expression, but her eyes were intense. Homura didn't try to hide her own animosity towards this girl, as her sharp eyes and hard expression were in equal measure with each other. "Uh-um… Homura? Is this a friend of yours?"

"No. Not exactly." Homura said, flatly. "We just have a mutual acquaintance."

"I-I see… um…" She turned to the girl and bowed her head softly. "Well my names Madoka Kaname."

The girl smiled. "Sorry, I was being rude." She returned the bow and said, "I'm Mami Tomoe. It's nice to meet you."

"Did you want something?" Homura asked, cutting off the pleasantries. She typically wasn't very expressive, so there wasn't exactly hostility in her voice, there was just her characteristic lack of emotion which could often come off as harshness. Still, Madoka got the impression that Homura was troubled by this girl's presence.

"I did." Mami spoke calmly. "I was hoping for a chance to speak with you… it involves our _mutual friend_."

"Acquaintance is a better word, but fine. Now is not the best time, however."

"After school then?"

"Fine." Homura said, "We have to go now. We don't want to be late. Come on, Madoka." And with that Homura continued on her way, and put an end to the short exchange.

Madoka was left behind for a moment, trapped between two thoughts. Madoka thought this girl seemed pleasant enough, but It was clear Homura had some kind of issue with her. Whatever the problem was, Madoka figured it had to involve this ' _mutual acquaintance'_ of theirs. "Um, well it was nice to meet you." Madoka said to Mami, her fidgeting hands showed she was anxious to catch up with Homura.

"Indeed, and we will probably be seeing each other again." Her smiled faded somewhat, into a more serious expression, and she said, "Be careful of that one. She isn't what she seems."

"Huh?" Madoka wanted to question what she meant by that, but the senior already started on her way down the hall again. Madoka delayed for a moment, glancing from Homura, and back to Mami who were each heading in opposite directions. Then, she started walking with quick steps and went after Homura.

* * *

"Mami Tomoe." Homura said, her hand still held tightly to her left shoulder. "I don't think I ever hated her… yet, her existence has been nothing but trouble for me."

"She's the one who killed your friends." The witch said, "Why don't we look at that memory? Few things of your life are ever clear to me, but certain _intangible_ things do come through... Despair is what I can most easily decipher. The despair of that day was truly wonderful." Her hand waved out over the field of spider lilies, and their petals danced in response. "This garden rarely appeared brighter."

 _Rarely…_ if Homura thought about it she could easily pick out which days this garden was the _brightest_.

She and the witch sat at the top of the hill, and they stared down at the red valley together. The witch's servants, _the claras,_ continued their march from the next hill over. When Homura looked over to them she felt a cold wind blow. They were getting closer. She could now clearly see the shape of the box that was to be her coffin.

"There's no need to look back on that memory." Homura said, calmly. "There hasn't been such an outcome with Mami in many timelines."

"Yet it proves my thesis quite well, doesn't it? The only end for Mami Tomoe is despair. You can hide the truth from her, but that's more false hope. It cannot last forever."

"I don't care much for Mami Tomoe's despair one way or another." Homura said, "I'd like to save her if I can, but her fate is inconsequential to my true goals."

"Madoka Kaname." The witch said, and hearing such a beautiful name spoken by such a wicked creature caused Homura's blood to boil, and her hand grasped her shoulder even tighter. "I've been your passenger for a long time, but I've never understood your dedication to her. Why you sacrifice so much for this one girl's well being."

"No… I suppose you would never understand that." Homura said, "I'm sure it's impossible for a creature like you to understand such feelings."

The witch's head turned, and the wooden jaw opened very slightly. Homura realized that must be the closest thing to a smile this creature could pull off. "Whether I understand it or not, I don't complain with the results. Her existence has caused you so much despair."

"No." Homura said flatly. "If that is what you think then you really understand nothing at all. Madoka is the only thing that brings me happiness. She is what keeps me from giving into those negative feelings." Homura looked back at the witch, refusing to falter under the unseeing gaze of her button eyes, which hung loosely by thin red threads stitched into the doll-like face. "I suppose, she is what gives me the strength to resist you."

"How ironic." The witch's head turned in it's odd unnatural way, and it went back to staring out over the flowers. The clara's were gradually making their way through the valley and Homura judged they were now halfway between their starting point and their destination. "That's just the nature of false hope. It can be rather annoying, but when all is said and done it makes the eventual despair all the sweeter."

"I don't know what you are talking about with false hope. What Madoka represents to me is nothing like that. It's so much simpler, yet so much more powerful." Homura held tighter to herself. With her arm crossed over her chest, she became more aware of her own heartbeat. "What Madoka is to me transcends things like hope and despair… for me… Madoka is-"

* * *

Homura held Madoka's hand as she led her up the stairs.

"Um… Homura. Can you tell me why we are here already?" Madoka asked, blushing lightly as she glanced back down the stairs. Homura always had a mysterious quality to her, but right now it was even more apparent than usual.

After school, Homura asked Madoka to accompany her for the day, only offering the explanation that there was _something important_ she needed her for. They took the city bus without Madoka knowing where they were going, but before arriving at their destination Homura revealed that they were going to the hospital. This caused Madoka to start racking her brain for an answer to why Homura would want to bring her to a place like that, and it partly made her worry it had something to do with their conversation about Homura's health earlier.

When they got there, Homura didn't check in at the lobby, or head for a room to visit anyone. Instead, she told Madoka that they were going up to the roof.

Having still not received a straight answer as they neared the top flight of stairs, Madoka finally got frustrated and shouted, "Homura!" Homura stopped her progress, and turned to look back at Madoka who stood a few steps lower than her. "I said, can you tell me why we are here? It's… well, the way you are acting… is starting to worry me a little…"

"I'm sorry." Homura said, "I'm just not sure how to explain what's about to happen… or rather, I don't think I could explain it in a way that you would believe me, so I thought it would be best to just show you."

"That… really doesn't help."

"I know." Homura said simply, and Madoka couldn't help rolling her eyes. "Do you remember that girl we spoke to in the school hallway. Mami Tomoe?"

"Yes?"

"She is going to meet us on the roof. I came to speak with her… and… It's a conversation I thought you should hear."

"Oh… um, well what's it about?" Madoka asked.

"I think it'll be best to save explanations for when we get there."

Homura then continued to lead the way up the stairs, and Madoka felt like she had no choice but to just follow.

"Um… how exactly did you and Mami meet? The two of you kind of seem like you don't like each other."

"I don't know her feelings, but I don't think it's necessarily that we don't like each other. We just have very opposing views on certain things… and as for how we met… well..." Homura's eyes shifted to the side and that mildly humorous grin that only Madoka ever got to see appeared on her face, "You were there."

"I… was?" Madoka thought back, trying to figure it out, then her eyes widened. "You mean… in the school hallway today? But that doesn't make any sense at all!"

"Well, we were at least aware of each other, through the mutual acquaintance we spoke of. That moment is the first time we had ever actually exchanged words, however."

"Listen… I don't like all this mystery." Madoka said, "Can you please explain what's going on? And why it's so important for me to come meet with her? And on the roof of the hospital of all places!?"

"Like I said, it would be very difficult to explain. You are just going to have to see things first hand." She looked Madoka in the eyes with that loving expression that came more and more easily, and it made Madoka blush. "You may hear some negative things about me… but can I ask that you keep faith in me?"

"What?"

Homura held out her hand, asking Madoka to take it again. "I'm asking you to trust me."

"Um…" Madoka's hands folded together at her chest as she looked up at Homura who stood a few steps above her. She didn't understand what was going on here, but whatever it was, she knew Homura was being sincere. "Y-yes… of course I trust you… but…"

Madoka slowly reached out her hand, and Homura took it with a firm yet gentle touch. "Let's just get this over with." Homura said, trying to hold the smile but Madoka could see she was at least a little bit troubled. Before Madoka could say anything else, Homura led her the rest of the way up the last story, and stopped at the door at the very top. She glanced back to her with one more serious expression. "The mutual acquaintance we talked about may also be here. His name is Kyubey. If he does show up, don't believe a single word he says."

"What?" Madoka asked, but before she could question that last statement any further, Homura opened the door and led her outside.

Compared to the dark stairwell, the outdoor sunlight felt blinding, and it took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust. She shielded them with her free hand, her other still in Homura's embrace, and looked around. There was no one here. "I guess we are early." Madoka said.

"No. She's here." Homura answered, then glanced over her shoulder. "You can come out."

Madoka, separating her hand from Homura's, turned around just in time to see Mami landing in a crouch behind the two of them. She must have jumped down from the small structure just above the stairwell. Madoka flinched, and took a few steps back until Homura was between herself and Mami.

"I'm surprised you brought her here." Mami said, as she raised back to a stand. "Why is that?"

"Well for one…" Homura answered, brushing her hair back. "So you would be less likely to try to ambush me once I got here."

Mami gulped and she took a step back, "I was…" The directness seemed to have caught her off guard, but she quickly straightened her posture and regain her confident pose. "Well, you are the one who insisted on this secluded location! I only would have used my binding magic, to make sure you didn't try anything funny. I had no intentions of harming you."

"I know." Homura said, calmly. "However, it's hard to have a mutual discussion under those circumstances. I imagine it would turn more into you just listing your own demands… well, let's not get off on the wrong foot here. What do you say we call a truce for now?"

Mami relaxed, and let the hard expression fall off her face and become somewhat softer. "You're right."

"Besides, that isn't the real reason I brought Madoka here. It was a slight benefit to her presence, but she is here for the simple fact that what we have to talk about directly involves her, and I think she has a right to hear what we have to say."

"Alright then. How about you start by explaining why you set that bomb off in the mall?"

For what felt like a long moment, no one said a word. A cool wind blew across the rooftop of the mall, blowing each of their skirts and bringing with it the ambient sounds of traffic, mostly originating from the highway that could be seen far off in the distance over the west side of the hospital's roof.

Madoka shook her head and took a step forward, putting on one of her rare stern faces and confronting the blonde senior. "That's ridiculous!" Madoka shouted at her, "How could Homura possibly do something like that? It's clear the two of you have some kinds of differences, and I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt… but if you are just going to come up with wild accusations! Then-"

"Madoka." Homura held out a flat palm, signaling Madoka to stop. Her voice was slow and dark. "She is right. I did it."

Madoka, involuntarily took a few steps backwards. Was this some kind of joke?

"So… you're admitting it?" Mami asked, folding her arms.

"I have no reason not to." Homura said, "Besides, I wouldn't simply stand here and bold face lie about something you already know for a fact."

"I see…" Mami's eyes narrowed, "Then why did you do it?"

The wind blew a few strand of hair across Homura's face. She raised a hand and brushed it back around the side of her head, all the while meeting Mami's intense gaze and not flinching an inch. "Why do you think?" Mami didn't seem to have an answer, and just continued to stare her down. Homura explained; "I needed a way to evacuate the mall, so no one would be harmed by the witch."

"That sounds like a little overkill to me."

"Perhaps, but it was effective. I was careful with my placement of the bomb, and the time it would go off. Not a single person was hurt and the damage was actually rather minimal."

Madoka had been listening to their conversation with a completely perplexed expression on her face. "Uh… um…" She wanted to get a word in, but she wasn't even sure what to say. The kinds of things they were saying were so bizarre and lacked any kind of context, it was like she was watching them rehearse a random scene from the middle of a play. She had no idea what was going on.

"Then what about you constantly attacking Kyubey?" Mami asked, "How do you explain that?"

"It's simple." Homura said, and glanced back to Madoka who still looked completely lost. "I want to prevent Madoka from becoming a Magical Girl."

Finally, Madoka had enough. "Is this some kind of joke?" She said, practically shouting. Then her tone lowered again as she addressed Homura. "Homura… i-if that's what this is, then you have really gone too far… a-and, I wish the two of you would stop it."

Mami gave the pinkette an amiable smile. "So then, I'm guessing Homura hasn't told you anything about it yet, has she?"

Madoka just stared back, still completely confused by the situation. They both seemed completely serious, and nothing about their tones suggested it was a joke, but the things they had been saying were just preposterous. What was a Magical Girl in the first place anyway?

Homura eventually answered for her, "I haven't told her a thing."

"I see…" Mami said. She turned and started walking to the other end of the roof, "Well then, I suppose there is a lot that needs to be explained." With her back turned, she started pulling at her finger, trying to remove the silver ring that she kept there. "I suppose it's best to just start with this…"

As she turned back toward Madoka, she held out the ring that was now in her palm, and it started to glow brightly. At first, Madoka thought she had taken out a flashlight, but then the light seemed to sink into her skin. It crawled up her forearm then spread across her chest, and soon her entire body was covered with it.

Madoka's mouth dropped wide open as she watched, unable to fully believe what she was seeing. The light took a physical form, and became yellow as it expanded outward and took on the shape of circular ribbons which surrounded her. Beneath those ribbons, Madoka could make out the outline of the senior's body, and her school uniform had completely disappeared. This only lasted a moment, before the ribbons snapped tight around her limbs and torso again, and new clothing started to appear.

Madoka gasped, and tripped when she tried to step back. She would have fallen right on her butt, but Homura quickly moved over to help steady her, placing one hand on the small of her back, and grabbing her forearm with the other. "Wah-wah-what!" Madoka shouted, apparently totally lost for words.

Mami bowed as the transformation complete. When she raised back up she looked at Madoka with a smile. "As I said, we are both Magical Girls."

"You should have eased her into it." Homura said, with a touch of coldness to her voice. "Rather than showing off so abruptly and scaring her."

Mami frowned slightly, "I am sorry if I've frightened you… I didn't think there any words we could use to make you believe us, so I figured we could just show you."

Madoka shook herself out of it, and took a step forward. Homura let go of her but remained within arms distance. "N-no, I'm not frightened… just a little shocked is all… um…" She looked Mami up and down, examining the seniors new clothing. Then she looked back over to Homura, with a touch of excitement in her eyes. "Homura, are you saying you can do something like that as well?"

Homura's gaze fell to the side, and her face had not a trace of humor or excitement to match Madoka's. "I can."

"You might as well show her." Mami said, folding her arms and grinning sheepishly.

"No." Her answer held a certain weight to it which stripped any casualness from the atmosphere. "I only transform when I intend to fight. Never for the purpose of showing off. Only fools with a death wish would partake in such a practice." She walked to the other end of the roof and leaned over the railing to look down below.

Mami didn't seem too gratified with Homura's attitude, and her own voice became somewhat harsher. "I still would like to know why exactly you wish to harm Kyubey, and why you want to prevent Madoka from becoming a Magical Girl herself."

"I do not care what happens to Kyubey. Bringing him harm is not my goal. All I want is to spare Madoka from having to share our fate."

"Or more like you don't want more competition inside your territory. Is that it?"

"Um… territory?" Madoka asked.

"Typically, Magical Girls don't tend to get along with each other." Mami explained, "Our mission is to fight witches, creatures who feed of human despair, and we all share that goal. However, defeating a witch offers certain rewards which allow us to keep our powers. There are a limited number of witches to fight, and therefore many Magical Girls become territorial and fight with each other." Mami pointed at Homura, who stared back with her typical unrevealing expression. "I'm guessing that's the kind of Magical Girl Homura is. Based on her actions, it's clear that she is trying to take over this territory for herself. Befriending you and Sayaka Miki was likely just a way to keep track of other competition."

Madoka clasped her hands at her chest and took a step towards Mami. "No! Homura wouldn't do that! She's not that kind of person at all, and you know nothing about our friendship, so you have no right to say something like that!"

Mami frowned apologetically, "Don't get me wrong, I'd actually like nothing more than for all of us to get along. Her actions have been very suspicious, however." Mami sighed, "Madoka, I don't know if you would understand this, but you actually have the potential to become one of the most powerful Magical Girls Kyubey has ever contracted. Just as someone like you appears, Homura then comes out of the woodwork and tries to prevent that contract from happening? It's too obvious what her real intentions are when it's looked at from that angle."

Madoka shook her head. Mami words felt like knives, and she just couldn't believe them. Surely this was all a misunderstanding. Homura wasn't very good at expressing herself, but Madoka was able to see through to the person she truly was on the inside and knew she wouldn't be so underhanded. Besides that, the way she felt when she was around Homura - _that warm uplifting feeling -_ the mere suggestion that it all could be a lie made Madoka angry that this Mami Tomoe would jump to such a conclusion. "You… you're just wrong! Ok? You don't know anything about Homura at all!"

"Madoka, she bombed a populated shopping mall!" Mami said, "Who knows how many people could have gotten hurt? I'm trying to warn you, she is not what she appears to be."

"B-but… she did it for good reasons… and no one actually got hurt…" The resolve in her voice quavered somewhat, it being hard to justify such an action, but she looked over to Homura for reassurance. When their eyes met, that warm smile touched Homura's lips once again.

Homura took a few steps forward. "I know my actions seem odd, but there is reason for everything I do. You think I only care about GriefSeeds, correct? Well… Have I actually impeded on your GriefSeed collection? In fact, the incident at the mall should have made things easier for you, since you didn't have to worry about any humans getting hurt in the process."

"That's true…" Mami said, "But how do I know that's not just trying to gain my trust? Don't take this the wrong way, but you do seem the manipulative type."

"Didn't you say yourself it seemed like overkill? Wouldn't that be even more so if the whole thing was for the sake of earning your trust? Furthermore, if falsely gaining your trust was my goal, surely those actions wouldn't accomplish that."

"To tell the truth, I'm really not sure what to make of you." Mami said.

"Then perhaps it would be best to reserve judgment for now." With that, Homura flicked her hair back and walked over to the railing of the hospital. "There is another reason I chose the hospital for our meeting." She looked over her shoulder and stared at Mami through the corner of one eye. "Can you feel it?"

Mami stared back with suspicion in her eyes, until she realized what Homura was talking about, then quickly ran over to where she was standing and look down from over the railing. "A labyrinth?" Mami gasped.

Homura nodded. "It opened soon after I arrived. We have around ten minutes before the witch manifests and begins to feed. Shall we go after it together?"

Mami gaped for a second, then her eyes narrowed. "You knew it was here. How?"

"I have my ways." Homura replied. "I didn't place it here, if that's what you're thinking. I merely realised an opportunity, and seized it."

"Seized it?"

Homura's lip twitched upwards. "You don't trust me, and words are never going to change that after the mall. So what better way for you to see what I truly am than in battle, fighting at your side?"

Mami stared at Homura for a long moment, as if trying to see through a pokerface and figure out if her opponent were bluffing or not. Finally, she agreed. "Alright fine, I suppose I don't have a choice. I'll be keeping my eye on you, though, and if I even think you are trying anything funny I'll have to act first."

"Fine." Homura said, and then clasped her palm around her ring on the opposite hand.

Beneath her palm there was a bright light, and rainbow colored rays shot out from between her fingers. Madoka watched with fascination as the light became more fluid and started to pour itself over Homura's body, and it stripped away her clothing. The light would flash between all colors of the rainbow until it gradually settled on a purple hue, then expanded away from her body and morphed into purple ribbons as it had done for Mami. Homura's slender form could be seen under the ribbons, then they snapped back around her body, and with sudden flashes of light her new _Magical Girl_ clothing appeared.

Homura was less theatrical about the transformation, and simply brushed a few loose strands of hair around the side of her head once the process was complete.

"Wow!" Madoka said, "Homura, that's amazing!" She leaned left and right to try to get the full scope of Homura's costume, but once again, Homura didn't seem too amused.

Homura looked over to Mami, "If Kyubey wishes to pursue Madoka as a Magical Girl candidate, I think it's only fair that we show her what this job is really about. Don't you agree?"

"Of course," Mami said, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Homura held her hand out to the pinkette, who seemed to take a queue from Homura's serious tone of voice and stopped goofing around. "Homura?" Madoka asked, taking in her intense expression for a moment.

"We are going to go fight a witch now. I would like to bring you with us. With me and Mami there, you should be safe, but there is a level of danger. There is a possibility all three of us will die. I doubt that will happen this time, but you should be aware of the risks. You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Madoka's hands clasped at her chest, and her eyes shifted around as she took in the gravity of Homura's words.

Mami grinned as she stepped over to Homura's side. "She is being a bit overly dramatic. I've been doing the Magical Girl thing for two years myself, and it seems Homura is experienced as well, so everything will be fine."

Homura glanced over to Mami and gave the blonde her first positive expression since the conversation started. "So I take that to mean you trust me now?"

"Well, I decided to take your advice and just reserve judgement for now. I'm still keeping an eye on you, however."

"Fair enough." Homura said, then looked back to Madoka. "So, what's your answer?"

"Well… I don't really understand all of this, but if it's something you think I should see… then yes, I'll come." And with that, Madoka took Homura's hand, and they smiled at eachother.

"Alright, it's settled then." Mami said, and in one fluid motion her feet lifted off the ground and she jumped up onto the railing in a rather impressive show of acrobatics. "See you in the labyrinth." She said, and then she jumped down.

"MAMI!" Madoka screamed, and quickly rushed to the railing and looked down. It looked to her like the senior had just attempted suicide, but before hitting the ground she disappeared into a flash of light. The area she disappeared into rippled like heat waves, until gradually returning to normal again. Before Madoka could make any sense of this, she felt Homura scoop her up, wrapping one strong arm around her waist and lifting her off her feet. "Homura!?" Madoka gasped.

Homura jumped as well, but unlike Mami she cleared the railing without touching it at all. It would have been an impossible movement for a normal human, but Madoka had no time to take any note of that. She screamed and wrapped her arms around Homura's neck as the two of them descended downward. "HOMURA!"

* * *

The witch collapsed to the ground and a puff of smoke escaped it's grinning clowns face. It's snake-like body gave it's final death throws, before withering and disappearing along with the labyrinth. As the cake towers and icing covered walls grew transparent, Madoka lost the strength to stay on her feet and her body went completely limp. "H-Homura…" She squeaked out, with a single tear rolling down her cheek. "Y-you can't be…"

Mami had an equally horrified expression on her face, and her hand felt along her neck where she was quite nearly decapitated. At the last moment, Homura appeared and managed to push her out of the way, but ended up being eaten in her place. "And after I said all those horrible things about her." Mami cursed herself and tears started falling from her own eyes as well.

This only lasted for the time it took the labyrinth to disappear, however. Because once the labyrinth and the witch finish dissolving, they saw a black and gray clump kneeled down in the hospital's courtyard in it's place.

"Homura!" Madoka shouted, and she quickly ran over to her friend. Homura looked up, and before she had time to react, she was nearly knocked on her back by Madoka's embrace. Homura looked surprised for a moment, but then her face softened and she wrapped her arms around Madoka in return.

"I'm sorry to have worried you." She said, "I didn't intend for things to go that badly."

"I'm just glad your alright…" Madoka said through her tears. "I thought… I-I thought…"

Homura held onto her tighter and let her get some of her emotions out.

Mami herself still hadn't quite recovered from her near death experience, and her hand rubbed her neck as she walked over to the two of them. She kneeled down to pick up the GriefSeed and held it out to Homura. "Here. You are the one who defeated it, so this should belong to you."

"No…" Homura said, still holding tightly to Madoka. "You can have it. I would like for it to be considered a peace offering between us."

Mami seemed like she wanted to argue the point, but neither of them seemed to want to pay her much mind right now as the two held onto each other. Mami smiled, and turned her head up to the sky.

"That was so scary…" Madoka whispered. "I really thought something horrible happened to you."

"I'm alright… this time." Homura said, allowing her voice to become cold once more. She put her hands on Madoka's shoulder and pushed her back enough so that they could look each other in the eyes. "Madoka. I want you to engrain that moment into your mind. Neither of us died, but we easily could have. That is the reality of being a Magical Girl."

"B-but, if it's so dangerous, then why do you do it?"

"I'm afraid there is no choice. For either of us. When our contracts were made it sealed our fate."

"Still." Mami started, "We do get the opportunity to protect people. If that witch were left unchecked there is no telling how many people it could have ended up hurting."

"Regardless." Homura said, "The contract should only be made by those who have no other choice, and are out of options. Madoka, if you treasure the life you currently have, you should not make a contract." With that, Homura started to stand up but winced and her hands shot back to her side.

She tried to hide what was there, but Madoka forced her arm to the side just enough to see. She saw Homura's clothing under her right arm was torn and soaked with blood. "Homura! You're hurt!" Madoka said, and stood up. "We are at the hospital, I'm going to go ask for help!"

"That's not necessary." Homura said, with a slight grunt to block out the pain.

"Homura! That's really deep, you can't just!" Madoka stopped when Mami put a hand on her shoulder.

"Homura's right, getting a doctor really isn't necessary and it would cause far too many questions." Mami then kneeled down by Homura and held out her SoulGem.

"B-but-" Madoka continued to want to complain.

"Just trust us."

"You don't need to." Homura said to Mami, as Mami gently guided Homura's hand away from the wound. "I can take care of it myself just fine."

"Hey, you are letting me have the GriefSeed right? So I think this is the least you can allow me to do for you."

Madoka watched with fascination as the blood began to disappear, and strings of light pulsed through the wound as it started to close up and Homura's uniform stitched itself back together. When it was all done, they each disenchanted their costumes and reverted back to their school uniforms.

Though Madoka had calmed down somewhat, Homura could see she was still a bit shaken up. Homura stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. "If you don't want to go home right away, we could go back to my apartment." She said.

"Um… w-well, sure. I told my parents I'd be late coming home tonight anyway, so I guess it's alright."

Homura looked over to Mami with a not so inviting expression, and waited for her response. Mami grinned, "Actually, I have some schoolwork I need to catch up on. We should continue this some other time, however."

"Of course." Homura said, and with that they parted ways.

* * *

As Madoka and Homura walked together, Madoka slowly drifted closer and closer to Homura's side. When Homura finally noticed, she smiled and took Madoka's hand. At this point they didn't have anything to say, but their entwined fingers spoke much louder than any words. _Being like this with Madoka… feels really nice._

It wasn't too late in the day, so they would have some time together. They could talk over the things Madoka had learned today about Magical Girls… and maybe, _other_ things as well.

Madoka pulled herself in closer, and rested her head against the taller girl's arm as they continued to walk. _This is perfect,_ Homura thought. _Everything went even better than planned._

It seemed working her way into Madoka and Sayaka's circle before they had a chance to meet Mami was the right move. Keeping Sayaka out of the loop on the Magical Girl business helped with better results as well. Homura would have had a much harder time defending her position if the bluenette, who seemed predisposed to not trusting her, was there.

She would need a way to distract Sayaka from her, and Kyoko Sakura, the girl who was at complete odds with Sayaka's own ideals, would do the trick. Then, when Sayaka eventually spiraled into despair, that very same girl would be the best chance at pulling her out of it again.

In the labyrinth, all went as expected. Mami's ego got the better of her, as it always tended to do around potential Magical Girl candidates, and she let her guard down. That trick the sweets witch had of concealing it's more dangerous form until it really needed it seemed to have come in handy this time. Homura waited until the very last second before Mami would have been decapitated, and then made her move.

It would be clear to both Madoka and Mami that Homura easily could have allowed the witch to kill her. If there were any doubts in their minds (mainly Mami's) that Homura wished to eliminate her competition, that should put an end to it.

Then, before revealing herself again, Homura took a machete out of her shield space and stabbed herself in the side. It was the very wound Mami had just healed, and it seemed it had the desired effect on Madoka. Madoka nearly witnessed one girl lose her head, and then she actually did see Homura get what looked to her like a nearly fatal injury. These images were powerful, and would hold Madoka back from making the contract for at least another month.

Homura had tried this approach at least three times before, but this is the first time it worked out so well.

Even going as far back to the first day they met in this timeline. Homura easily could have strayed the cat from its normal path earlier in the day to prevent the accident. Instead, she chose the same approach she did when saving Mami, and made it as dramatic as possible. Now she had Madoka's full trust, and Madoka was becoming closer with her much earlier than usual.

She would eventually need to convince the girls that she was from the future, which was always difficult. Now wasn't the time, however. She needed to finish establishing the team before that happened.

"Homura?" Madoka suddenly asked, breaking her away from her thoughts.

"What is it, Madoka?" Homura asked softly.

"Why…" She thought for a moment, "Why are you doing so much for me?"

Homura stopped. Their hands stayed together, but she turned to face the smaller girl. "What do you mean?"

"Sorry… I didn't mean to put it that way. It's just… well, I don't really know _how_ to put it. It's just… is there anything you still are not telling me?"

Homura was quiet for a long moment. It's true, she didn't tell Madoka everything _yet_. It would have to come eventually, but for now there was just no way she could make her believe everything. Even if she _could_ make her believe it, how could she possibly go through with telling this sweet innocent girl the reality of what she could become? Nor could she put the burden of her own sacrifices on Madoka's conscious. It wasn't time for that yet, and she doubted Madoka would even understand.

There's something Madoka could understand, however. Maybe Homura couldn't explain her story, but she could at least show Madoka her feelings.

With their hands entwined, they looked deep into each other's eyes. Word's were unneeded. There was something Homura couldn't tell her, and whatever the reason was didn't matter. Because Homura didn't just care for her… she _loved_ her, and whatever actions she took, and whatever secrets were kept, were meant to protect that love.

Homura moved her lips closer, until they could feel the warm air of each other's breathing. Their hands tightened together. Madoka closed her eyes, and moved forward just enough to invite Homura in the rest of the way.

Their lips touched.

The kiss started off slow and sweet, each of them just delicately tasting the other. Homura gently pulled on Madoka's lower lip, and Madoka responded by letting her tongue come out, asking for just a little more. Their mouths slowly opened, until they were fully locked together, Homura leaning her head down into the smaller girl and bringing her free hand around to her back to hold her in her embrace. Madoka's free hand found itself on Homura's side, and they stayed like that for what felt like an eternity. Each of them responding to each other through the tension of their hands and the movements of their mouths, feeling at one with each others souls.

When it was over, and their lips parted again, they remained close and stared deep into eachother's eyes. Each of them were blushing, and their hands still held tightly together with their fingers intertwined. "That was my first kiss." Madoka said, and the expression that accompanied the words as the small pinkette looked up at her was cute enough to melt Homura's heart.

"Yeah…" Homura said, unable to contain her own blush. "Um… how… was it?"

Madoka once again couldn't help smiling at how awkwardly Homura managed to put things sometimes. "It was…" Madoka giggled, glancing away in embarrassment, but kept her one hand inside Homura's as she started walking again. "It was nice. And it also… it felt like…"

Homura gave her a questioning glance, asking her to continue.

"It's strange, but it almost feels like we've done it before… Like, I don't know… even though we've only actually known each other a little over a week, it feels a lot longer. Like I've always known you." Madoka laughed and looked back up at Homura. "I know, that sounds silly… doesn't it?"

"No… not really." Homura said with a smirk. She stared back into Madoka's eyes, and once again found herself getting lost in her expression. Right now, everything was perfect… but it wouldn't last.

Tonight, Kyubey would approach Madoka again. Homura would let it happen, because by now the _rat_ would not be able to influence her.

Failing there, he would then turn to Sayaka as a way of applying pressure to Madoka's choice. This was unavoidable, and Homura could only delay Sayaka for a matter of days, but ultimately would have to allow the contract to happen.

Homura released Madoka's hand and instead put her arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close as they continued to walk down the street together.

Right now, this was like the calm before the storm. She had to make sure all the pieces were in place before the tempest arrived.

* * *

Kaiji watched from outside the room, looking through a two way mirror as a team of doctors continued with the operation.

"Damn it…" Kaiji muttered to himself, under his breath. "What happened to you?"

A few minutes after Homura disappeared from the elevator room, a team of soldiers filed into the lab and started sweeping through the entire facility, looking for any remaining threats. They didn't find anything.

Those creatures... _familiars_ , as Homura called them, must have disappeared along with the death of the _witch_. Kaiji thought Homura would already be at least a dozen miles away… but then the soldiers found her in one of the test rooms.

When they found her, she was conscious but incoherent. She wildly thrashed her legs at anyone to come near her, all the while screaming in the manner of someone who was having night terrors. Luckily, Kaiji managed to make it to the room before the soldiers did anything stupid, like try to use their tasers, and instead called for some anesthetic.

These soldiers were not the typical guard staff, and therefore were not as quick to obey his orders. After the man who seemed to be the leader of their squad verified Kaiji's identity through his radio, Kaiji managed to get more control of the situation.

Homura wasn't very responsive to her surroundings, though she at least seemed somewhat aware. When she was no longer surrounded her head fell to the side, and it seemed she had fallen asleep. She didn't actually fall asleep, her eyelids still flickered and her breathing was quite heavy. The amount of blood loss was the most concerning thing, but Kaiji noticed that the wound on her arm already healed enough it no longer bled freely. Another aspect of her powers, he assumed. Normally without treatment, a wound like that wouldn't be able to heal itself, especially not in so short a time.

He had managed to move toward her and inject the anesthetic into her other arm while she seemed more calm. He wasn't sure if she realized who he was, or if she made a conscious decision to accept the anesthetic. Whatever the case, he managed to give it to her without any trouble. A moment later, her eyes stopped flickering and her breathing lessened, and Kaiji went to yelling at the soldiers for an explanation why a medical team hadn't been called here yet.

That was maybe thirty minutes ago. Now, he stood all alone in the dark observation room and kept an eye on things. His eyes felt heavy, he wasn't sure what time it was but it must have been well past midnight. He doubted he would be able to sleep though. The wrenching feeling in his gut wouldn't allow for that.

He had no idea what happened to Homura, but he at least understood if she was never taken to this lab in the first place, she wouldn't be in the condition she was in now. Was that his fault, though? No... With or without him, she would have been captured and taken here. He had nothing to do with that part of it. Even if he ever _wanted_ to free her, he didn't have that power anyway. This wasn't his fault, he assured himself… but even thinking that, he couldn't help feeling like it was.

Then he heard the door behind him let out a few beeps before sliding open. Kaiji looked over, and squinted his eyes at the silhouette which appeared in the doorway.

"Kotaro?"

Kotaro walked over to him with quick steps. Well, he didn't walk over to Kaiji, he walked over to the window Kaiji was in front of, and looked out into the operation room. It was dark in the room, but somehow Kaiji could still easily imagine the expression on the young soldier's face as he stood there.

Originally, Kotaro and Furuhata were each taken into separate rooms for questioning, and also to be briefed on what they could say and to whom. The later pretty much amounted to: Nothing and no one.

Murakami hadn't yet regained consciousness, as far as Kaiji knew, and was taken to another medical room for treatment. Of course, the _test subject_ would be getting priority over him. Kotaro himself must have been taken care of before they found Homura, because his broken nose was already patched up.

"So what the hell happened to her?" Kotaro asked.

"Who authorized you to come in here?" Kaiji asked back, with a distant tone to his voice. He didn't mind Kotaro's presence, but it was odd that he was here.

"You did. Or at least that's what I said." Kaiji turned to him, feeling like he should say something about that, but considering the night's events he decided to just let it go. "So… What the hell happened?"

"I don't know. No one does at this point. I suppose we really won't have any answers until Homura wakes up. That's if she will even tell us anything."

Right now Homura wasn't wearing her transformed clothing. She was simply wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans, which the lab had provided for her. Usually when she would be taken for testing they would have her change into a hospital gown, but when she was left in her room she was provided with a wardrobe appropriate for a teenage girl.

The doctors seemed to have finished with patching up the wound from her severed arm. She had an IV connected to the vein under the opposite elbow, and a mask over her face providing oxygen. Then, one of the doctors took out a pair of scissors and brought it down to the bottom of her shirt and started cutting.

Kotaro let his eyes fall away as they cut her shirt away. "What the fuck are they doing that for?"

"To check for other injuries, they'll probably change her into a hospital gown. Also they are going to do an X-Ray next. They can't have that kind of clothing interfering."

Kotaro folded his arms and quickly turned away so his back was now facing the operating room. "What? And you're just going to watch this shit?"

"This is a pretty standard way of doing things in emergency situations. Even regular would handle it this way." Kaiji turned away from the mirror himself, and stood facing into the dark room along with Kotaro.

"I just want to know what the hell happened! She was free damn it! The way she was talking, it's like there was no doubts about it. So what the hell is she still doing here? A-and she missing a… and missing-" Kaiji then heard something he never thought he would from someone like Kotaro. The young soldier's voice cracked, and he stopped talking to try to conceal the fact he was crying. It was surprising coming from a tough guy like him, but on the other hand it wasn't _too_ unexpected. Kotaro was clearly a very passionate person, after all.

"You should be careful about the kinds of things you say." Kaiji said, tonelessly. "You shouldn't actually _want_ her to escape, you know."

"That girl saved my life. She saved yours too… all of us. Even Murakami just seconds before I would have had to kill him. She didn't have to do all of that."

"I know." Kaiji said, simply.

They were quiet for a while, there was something else that had been on Kaiji's mind ever since Homura was found, and he finally voiced it. "All of her weapons came from under that shield of hers. Right?"

Kotaro nodded.

Kaiji shook his head. "I don't know the cause, but I can take a guess at the results. I wonder, will her missing her arm will prevent her from using her powers?"

"Would you guys let her go if that were the case?"

Kaiji was quiet for a long time before he answered. When he did, his voice was solemn and full of regret. "It's not up to me. But no. The reality is, I don't think Homura will ever be allowed to leave this place… especially not now."

"Well why the hell not? Without her powers, what justification is there for tormenting a teenage girl? Do you assholes just get off on this shit or something?"

"Even if her teleportation skill, and her newly exposed ability to produce weapons are no longer accessible to her, there is still the fact that her body heals at an abnormal rate. Also, thanks to the events of tonight, it's clear there is much more we don't know about her and it could be dangerous to just leave her on the streets."

 _And, she isn't the only one._ Kaiji thought, but kept that to himself.

Kotaro shifted somewhat, as if he wanted to get upset, but he understood Kaiji was only stating facts, and how it would be seen from the perspective of their superiors.

Then, the door started beeping. Both of their heads looked up as it slid open, and a large silhouette which filled the entire doorframe appeared. They had both held a relaxed posture as they conversed with each other, but now each of them straightened up. "Dr. Endou." Kaiji said.

"Kaiji." Endou said, returning the unenthused greeting. Endou stopped at the window and watched for a moment as they prepared Homura for the X-Rays. "What is Sakazaki doing here?"

"I asked for his company." Kaiji explained, "We do not know the nature of tonight's attack, or if it could happen again, so I wanted him close by. Right now, he is the only one with experience on this kind of thing." Of course, if he told the truth that Kotaro lied to gain access to this part of the lab, it would mean big problems for him, so he came up with this lie to protect the young soldier.

"Did you finish your report on tonight's events?"

Kaiji remained silent. He had very recently pushed for Endou's termination, but the lead researcher didn't even seem to be acknowledging this fact. Of course, after tonight events, Endou would have a much easier time arguing his methods were necessary. Power through fear and intimidation; that was just how this man operated, and unfortunately Homura provided him with all the ammo he would need.

"You should go home, Kaiji." Endou said. "No doubt you are exhausted. You can finish your report in the morning. You were suppose to have the night off in the first place."

"Thank you for the concern, but I would rather stay."

"That was an order, Kaiji. These next few days will be crucial, and we need to stagger out our resources. We are the two lead researchers in this project, which means if we both stay awake now we'll both need to sleep through the day tomorrow, and neither of us will be available when we are needed. So go home and get some rest."

His voice had been completely monotone as he explained all of that. His argument was weak, but it didn't really matter _what_ the argument was. Endou simply didn't want Kaiji here, and that made Kaiji worry that he had something planned.

"You understand that Glazadrine, under ideal circumstances, has some level of risk." Kaiji said. "Right now Homura has had massive blood loss, and aside from that, we wouldn't want to mix it with the anesthetic. Right?"

Endou took a moment before answering. "Of course. That would be far too risky." He glanced back to Kaiji with his cool commanding gaze. "Homura will be unconscious for at least another twelve hours, and nothing will happen before she wakes up. Moving forward, however, I think the use of Galazadrine should strongly be considered."

"If you hadn't tricked her into taking it in the first place this may not have happened at all. You know." Kaiji said.

Endou paused for a moment, but again, his tone didn't seem to react to the attack. "If she had the ability to do this, she would have done it eventually. There is no doubting that. Whatever the case, it's something that can be discussed later. As I said, nothing will be happening tonight."

Kaiji glanced up at the clock mounted on the wall, and had to squint his eyes to see it in the dark room. _5:37._ His wife would be awake in another couple of hours.

He disappeared yesterday without much explanation, nor any warning he might be late. If she woke up and he wasn't beside her in bed, she would worry that something happened to him.

There were no phones down here in the lab, so if he wanted to call her he would have to go back to his car and use his cellphone. He decided that's what he would do. He couldn't leave the lab and go home, because he didn't trust Dr. Endou, but he could at least send his wife a text message, so she would know where he was when she woke up.

"I'm sure I can find a place to take a nap right here at the lab if it's necessary." Kaiji said, "As you said, these next few days will be crucial. I think watering down our forces is actually the worst move we can make right now. I'm just going to go inform my wife that I will be away from home for a little while, then I'll be right back." With that, he started walking towards the front door, and Kotaro followed close behind them.

"Sakazaki." Endou said, stopping Kotaro in his tracks. Kotaro turned, and looked at the doctor. The normally upbeat soldier didn't seem to have any of his typical grins reserved for doctor Endou. Kaiji wasn't even sure if Kotaro knew much about the kind of person Endou is, but for whatever reason, it was clear Kotaro had some reservations towards him. "Why don't you stay here? From what I understand you were quite useful during the attack. I would feel more comfortable to keep you near the test subject incase anything else unexpected comes up."

Kotaro glanced back to Kaiji, and Kaiji nodded. He had claimed that was the very reason he asked Kotaro down here in the first place, after all. "I'll be back." Kaiji said, and continued on his way.

The hallways were a bit more populated than normal. Mostly, Kaiji crossed path with soldiers as well as the more typical labs guard staff. He also passed by a couple doctors who were heading for the operation room. They were probably the X-ray technicians.

The metal doors behaved as they normally did now. All Kaiji needed to do when he reached one is look up at the camera for a moment, and it would open. If it didn't open, he would just state his name and request passage through whatever door number. They must have gotten replacements in the control room already.

He made it back to the elevator room where there were even more unfamiliar faces. The squad of soldiers were using this room as their base of operations for now, and they continued to send their teams patrolling through the facility. Security was probably going to be pretty tight around here for a while now.

At the elevator, Kaiji had to present his ID, and explain where he was going before being allowed on. These soldiers must have at least been briefed on the main members of the staff who were allowed free access of the facility, because " _I'm just going back to my car for a moment."_ Is the only explanation he need to offer once his identity was verified.

Something about the vertigo of the elevator moving upward reminded Kaiji of how tired he was, and his eyelids suddenly felt just a tad heavier. He decided once he got back into the lab he would go right for the break room, and make a cup of coffee for himself. Once that was done, he would go back to observing Homura.

He didn't know what would become of her yet. It depended on how she answered their questions once she woke up. She couldn't try the method of denying she is the one who caused the… _labyrinth…_ to appear, thanks to the announcement of an attack just minutes before everything happened. Everything she said and did was recorded. Her only hope now was the fact that she clearly tried to give warning, and she didn't actually want anyone to get hurt.

Once they started questioning her, if she refused to give any answers at all, Glazadrine would be the solution. That was likely in her future one way or another, actually, but Kaiji would try his best to fight against it. With Endou around, it wouldn't be easy, especially since he could claim an attack like this is exactly what the Glazadrine could have prevented, if they just started using it from the very beginning.

Kaiji walked through the upper level of the building. Absolutely none of the usual staff members were seen here, but there were plenty of soldiers. Outside the front entrance, there were two military vehicles parked right in front of the curb. Kaiji walked past these and walked out into the otherwise mostly empty parking lot.

Night was at the very beginning stages of giving way to dawn. The sun couldn't yet be seen, but it's soft orange glow painted the horizon. The air held that cool wet smell spring mornings tended to have. Being outside, and inhaling the open again after being trapped down there in that deathtrap felt like a huge relief. Part of him just wanted to do as Endou asked and go home. He really wouldn't mind having breakfast with his family, and then just sleeping through the afternoon and coming back to the lab later. He couldn't do that, though.

Despite the attack, and the lives that were lost because of it, he supposed he couldn't blame Homura for at least trying. Right now she needed help, and Kaiji was the only one with the power and the will to help her. He might not be able to give her freedom, but he could at least try to protect her from Endou. She seemed sincere about trying to prevent anyone from dying in the process. Things just went horribly wrong for her, somehow. Kaiji didn't have any explanation for exactly what happened.

Then, he remembered what she said about a third party who was trying to prevent her escape. It seemed like guess work, and she didn't exactly come to a definite conclusion, but seeing as her escape was thwarted in such a gruesome manner Kaiji supposed it would be a good idea to keep the idea of a third party in mind. Once again, until Homura actually woke up they wouldn't have any answers. That is, if she was even going to be cooperative. Knowing her track record, it was unlikely.

Kaiji unlocked his car, and climbed into the driver's seat. He flipped open his glove box and turned on his phone, then scrolled down to his wife's name in the contacts. She would still be sleeping, so he decided not to call her, but instead left a text message. "Sorry I didn't make it home last night, something unexpected came up at work. I may not make it back tonight either, I'm just going to sleep at the lab." Then he paused and thought it over for a moment before adding, "Don't worry, everythings fine. Love you both." Then hit send.

Kaiji sighed as he dropped the phone back down on the passenger seat and leaned back. He closed his eyes for a moment, and felt the exhaustion brushing over him. Coffee. He just needed some coffee to charge his batteries a bit, then he would be fine for at least another couple of hours. He could even get a nap sometime in the afternoon, and maybe give a request to be woken up if anything changed with Homura's condition.

Then his eyes shot open. He suddenly sat upright in his seat and his hand darted at the glove box. It was empty.

He reached down under the passenger seat and felt around. The video tape of Kyoko Sakura, or Kay Sakura as he now knew her, was missing. He had taken it from the convenience store, and left it in his glove box with his phone, but it wasn't there anymore! It was gone!

He got out of his car and walked around to the passenger side. He opened the door and kneeled down enough to see under the seat. No, it definitely wasn't there either, and he was pretty sure he had put it into the glovebox. Or maybe it was the back seat? Maybe he just tossed it back there without thinking about it and…

"Dr. Kaiji." Said a voice, as a long shadow casts itself over him. He looked over his shoulder, up at the person who had approached him. The sun had finally decided to peek over the horizon, and it's orange glow was just bright enough to hide this person's face.

Then, Kaiji couldn't see anything. Something struck him on the head and caused his entire field of vision to swim with stars. It didn't help that the blow landed right where he had hit his head on the desk when Homura's attack first started.

Kaiji fell into his car, and tried to kick his feet back, but the attacker caught the blow and pulled him out of the car the rest of the way, causing him to scrape his elbow on the asphalt of the parking lot as he fell.

He heard several sets of rush footsteps, and screeching tires as a van pulled up. Before he had time to yell for help, something was forced into his mouth and a bag was pulled over his head.

Several sets of hands grabbed onto him. Despite now being blinded, he tried his best to resist and pull away from them. This struggling ceased when one of his attackers delivered a powerful blow to his stomach, which forced all the air out of his lungs and caused his knees to buckle out. Next thing he knew, he was thrown onto the floor of the van, and it's door was slammed shut behind him. He could hear the screech of the tires and the roar of the engine as it took off.

* * *

 **I decided to stagger out the flashbacks, rather than doing them all in one shot like I originally planned. I don't have a real solid plan for how many more, or how often, I'll just say I'll throw the flashbacks in where I feel they fit. Either the next chapter, or the one after that will probably spend more time in the present than in the past.**

 **Also I'm working on Perfect Crime a little on the side, but I've decided to keep my main focus here on TSO rather than trying to do both at once. I figured out that it would do both of these stories more justice to have my undivided attention when I'm working on them. I'm hoping to finish TSO within a year (hopefully less), and then I'll move back to PC full time.**

 **As always, thanks for reading!**

 **-Atomyst**


	21. Chapter 21

Homura put a hand over her eyes to shield them from the light of an explosion. There was an ear piercing scream from the plant-like monster as its leaves began to wither and turn brown, then dissolved into black goo. The walls of the labyrinth became transparent, and everything disappeared as a griefseed fell to what was now the ordinary asphalted streets of Kazamino city.

Homura walked over to the GriefSeed, and bent down to pick it up, when she heard a ruffling sound behind her. She turned around to see two red eyes staring at her through the darkness, framed by a crop of crimson red hair. The red-devil of Kazamino city was crouched low with her spear poised to attack. Homura just stared back at her calmly, as a gust of wind blew her silky black hair to the side.

"So, you got a death wish or something?" Kyoko asked with a low menacing tone.

"Relax, I didn't come here to fight you." Homura said.

"If you're going to go around hunting witches in other people's territory you'd _better_ be ready for a fight." Her lips curled back, revealing a sharp grin. "It's unfortunate for you that I wasn't able to track you down sooner. You see, if it was just this once, I could assume you stumbled into my territory on accident, and just let you off with a friendly _warning_. However, by my count this would be the third griefseed you've stolen from me. So, just admit it. This is a take over isn't it? Well…" Kyoko's feet suddenly kicked off the ground and she came lunging through the air. "I'm not going to let that happen!"

Her spear cut the air with a swoosh as she bore down upon her opponent. The opposing Magical Girl didn't even seem as though she were going to react at all. Kyoko grinned internally, thinking how easy this was going to be. However, just before her spear would have connected, Homura disappeared, and Kyoko ended up just slamming her weapon against solid ground.

With a gasp, she reverted to a defensive stance, and started glancing around for where her opponent could have gone to. The girl seemed to have teleported about six meters behind her, and stood there in her casual pose, the wind still blowing her silky black hair like a flag.

"You really should hear people out before jumping to conclusions and doing foolish things."

"How the hell did you do that?" Kyoko sneered, watching her opponent with sharp analytical eyes, as she tried to think up a strategy for her second attack.

"If the GreifSeeds are that big of an issue, you can have them. I'd really rather not have to fight."

"Sorry, but you can't offer something that's already rightfully mine as a peace treaty. It doesn't work like that! Got it? And this one GriefSeed doesn't even come close to making up for the other two you have already stolen from me!" Kyoko grinned menacingly, "So, you better get ready! Or are you just planning on running away? I really wouldn't blame you, that'd be the smart thing to do. Just pray that I don't catch ya'!" She decided she would try to provoke this other Magical Girl into making the first move this time, then it might be easier to figure out a way around her little disappearing trick.

"First of all, you miscounted. It's actually three other GriefSeeds that I've stolen, this last one would make four. Secondly, you were not listening. I said you could have _them_ , meaning _all_ of them." Homura pointed down.

Kyoko's grin faded away from her face as she glanced down and saw four GriefSeeds lined up in a neat row by her feet. "What the… hell?"

"Now," Homura said, "Why don't we both disenchant our uniforms so we can speak to one another civilly?"

Kyoko clicked her teeth and shook the confused expression off her face. "You think that means anything at all? If I don't teach you a lesson here and now you'll think you can just waltz into my territory any time you want! Is that what you were hoping for? Hoping you could make a friend and we could go on witch hunts together? Sorry, but it don't work that way either, _dumbass_. This isn't some after school special! You're my enemy! Get it? Now fight me!" Kyoko began to lunge forward, but halted her attack when the dark haired girl spoke again.

"Mami Tomoe."

Kyoko halted her attack, practically skidding to a stop, and she raised an eyebrow at the name of her old senpai being spoken by this complete stranger.

The dark Magical Girl's lips pierced together into a cold-blooded smile. "I'm originally from Mitakihara. I've teamed up with Mami, but let's just say I'm not too happy with our arrangement." Her smile turned even more malicious as her lips parted, showing the whites of her teeth. "That fool, she wastes so much time and energy hunting down familiars and she expects me to do the same. It's too bad, it's such a prime piece of territory but she is going to end up ruining it. She already has, actually. Just think of how many of those familiars might have turned into witches? Instead, that fool would rather we all just starve, and in the name of her idiotic justice… So that's why…" Her eye's locked with Kyoko's just as a cold wind blew, and Kyoko felt a chill run down her spine. "I'm going to take her out."

"I see…" Kyoko's eyes narrowed, "And you want my help. Is that it?"

She nodded. "Mami is powerful, and she has another girl working with her. A rookie who won't be any trouble for us. Still, I don't think I can take them both on by myself. Let's just say that I've heard about you through the grape vine, and it's to my understanding you are the type that wouldn't be completely against something like this… So how about it?"

Kyoko couldn't help the grin that forced itself onto her own face. She suddenly bent over and let out a brief but exaggerated round of laughter. When she was done, she straightened her posture, and her face became much more serious. "Know something? I think I kinda like your style. So what's your name anyway?"

Homura grinned, and spoke her name. "Homura Akemi."

* * *

Kyoko stood against the threshold to the balcony with arms folded. Her cheeks were damped with tears, and her eyes held an expression of outrage. Of the four girls currently in Mami's apartment, she seemed to have taken the bad news Leiko delivered to them the hardest. Of course, she and Homura were more than just allies: they were friends. Other than Madoka, it was clear that Kyoko was the one who could most easily say that about her.

Mami sat at the dining room table, with her hands folded under her chin, and her eyebrows curved down with intensity. She was the accepted leader of their group, and now more than ever felt the weight of that responsibility. A difficult decision needed to be made, one she was openly opposed to from the very beginning, but agreed it could be used as a last resort. Now, their options were running out, and it was time to decide.

Leiko remained in the computer room, clicking and typing away. Earlier that morning, in a low apologetic tone, she gave them the bad news. She had her head down as she stood in the doorway of the computer room, answered what questions she could, then retreated back to the safety of the monitor without saying another word. That is where she had been ever since.

Sayaka, on the opposite side of the table from Mami, stared at the phone in her hand, waiting for Madoka's reply. She didn't tell Madoka what Leiko had told them yet. This wasn't something she could break to her friend over the phone. She knew it would be better to do it in person, so she could be there to comfort her. Still, aside from her own horror and anxiety from what happened to Homura, she also felt the guilt weighing on her. Madoka may have caught on that something went wrong, but no doubt she still had at least some hopes Homura would be here in this very apartment, waiting for her. It would be on Sayaka to dash those hopes, and tell her the results of their _mission_.

"It doesn't make sense…" Kyoko said, with a cracked voice. Her head turned so no one could see her face. She stared outside, over the balcony, watching the leftover lights of the city night peeter out and replace the buildings faces with the orange glow of dawn. "What… the h-hell?" She wasn't able to form her thoughts into words, every time her mouth opened her chest heaved in a suppressed sob. She gave it up, and folded her arms tighter into her chest.

Not only did Homura fail to escape the lab, she had lost an arm, among other various injuries. Did the witch do that to her? That was the obvious answer, and the one the majority of the girls came to. Kyoko however, refused to accept it. Homura was too strong to get defeated like that. Not by a simple witch... not the girl who rallied them against the Walpurgisnacht and led them to victory. Not her… _there was just no way..._

Sayaka lowered her phone. "Madoka's on her way. She had to sneak out, but she should be here soon." She sighed and shook her head. "How am I supposed to break this to her?" She said, under her breath.

"Whats our next move?" Kyoko asked in a heavy voice, she still stared out over the city with her head turned away from the other girls. "We busting in or what?"

Mami answered cautiously, "I don't know if that's wise."

With those words spoken, Kyoko's head spun around and she looked at Mami, teeth bared in disgust. Her wet cheeks caught some of the light of the orange morning sky. With her crimson hair, combined with bloodshot eyes, it almost looked as though she were on fire. "So we're just letting her stay trapped down there? Is that it!?" She yelled at Mami, who maintained her cool intense expression, not flinching an inch or showing any sign that she had heard Kyoko's words at all. "We tried a nonviolent method and it failed! There's only one choice left!"

Sayaka set her phone down completely and she watched Kyoko. She wanted to get up and go comfort her, but she knew Kyoko wouldn't accept it right now. Kyoko was a passionate person, and her emotions were powerful. Sayaka was probably the only person who could calm her down and bring her back to her senses, but Kyoko needed to get the initial burst over with before anything Sayaka said would reach her. She was just glad Mami was here, because even if Mami didn't have the ability to calm Kyoko down, she at least had the power to keep her from doing anything reckless.

"I understand your feelings." Mami said carefully, still holding her stoic demeanor. "I feel the same way, but we have to manage our emotions and continue to proceed cautiously. Now more than ever is a bad time for a full on attack, because there is currently a heavy military presence at the facility, on top of the usual guard staff. And like it or not, we still have no way of getting through those metal doors."

"You don't think a Tiro-Finale would knock one of those doors right off it's hinges?" Kyoko asked. "They are just ordinary humans, you think between the three of us we can't deal with them?"

"I'm just saying, let's slow down and come up with a plan…"

Kyoko's hand suddenly slammed against the threshold, her eyes flaring. "There's no more time! Don't you get it? You know how bad they were to her in the first place! Now that she basically attacked them, what do you think they are going to do to her? Do you even care?"

Mami stood up, getting the impression that Kyoko might want to bring this argument to the next level. "Of course I care! Homura is a dear friend but-"

"Bullshit!" Kyoko shouted, cutting her off. "Yeah, I'm not going to stand her and say you just don't give a damn, but if you aren't willing to put everything on the line, how can you call someone a _dear friend_?" Kyoko had taken a few steps forward as she said all of that, starring Mami down hard.

Mami maintained her hard expression, not letting herself get worked up by Kyoko's words. "Just running in without planning things out will not help Homura." Mami explained, "It's more likely the three of us will get captured as well and-"

Kyoko's expression became even fiercer, and Sayaka also stood up from her seat. Kyoko's magical presence suddenly became much stronger, and it frightened her.

Magic is fueled by emotion, and that's what made Kyoko so powerful. Typically, Mami could still defeat her because her own magic is much more refined, but when it came to pure brute strength, there is not a single member of their team who could match Kyoko when she was like this.

"Kyoko…" Sayaka said, trying to caution her, but Kyoko didn't seem to hear.

"I know what your real problem is." Kyoko said, her voice became low, almost a whisper, but there was so much suppressed rage behind it even Mami felt a level of intimidation. "Let's be honest, military presence or not, we are magical girls. They have never seen ANYTHING like us! If we just went on a full out attack, they would have no choice but to concede and give into our demands."

"You're suggesting we march in there and kill anyone who gets in our way." Mami's own eyes darkened, "Am I understanding you correctly?"

"They're our enemies. I don't see any reason to hold back. It's them or us." She gave Mami one more hard expression before clicking her teeth and looking away. "If you don't got the stomach for it, then just leave it to me." With that, she started walking toward the front door.

"K-Kyoko…" Sayaka said, trying to reach out to her, but Kyoko walked right past. There was another powerful pulse of magic, which emitted a gust of wind through the apartment, and Kyoko's clothing tore away from her body as she became covered in light. Crimson ribbons appeared around her limbs and body, hovering a few inches away from actually touching her, before snapping tight and then expanding outward to form her Magical Girl costume.

"You guys can do what you want." Kyoko said, her back faced the two other girls as the last bits of her tunic formed, completing the transformation. "Follow me or don't. It's your choice." When she took another step forward, her hand reaching out to grab the doorknob, there was a flash of light, and yellow ribbons appeared and rolled out over the doorway, creating a net. Kyoko took a step back, her teeth baring as she watched Mami's ribbons pulse with one more flash of light before setting into place over the doorway. To someone unfamiliar with this magic, it would look like these ribbons could be torn away easily enough, however, Kyoko knew from experience that this barrier would be even harder to break down than the steel doors of Homura's prison.

Kyoko's fists clenched at her side, her back still facing the other girls. "Mami…" She said in a hard whisper, trying to contain her rage. She spoke slowly. "Disenchant your barrier. Right now."

Sayaka stood between the two of them, not sure what to do. She glanced back to see Mami had transformed as well. Through the corner of her eye, she noticed Leiko's hand cautiously come out of the computer room, grab the doorknob, and very carefully close the door without making a sound. "Uh- um… guys…" Sayaka said, "Why don't we just-"

"Mami! Don't mess with me right now!" Kyoko shouted. "If you don't have the guts, that's fine!" Kyoko spun around, her face hot with fury. She slashed her hand in a diagonal line, creating another flash of crimson light which summoned her spear into her grasp. "But don't you DARE think about getting in _MY WAY!_ " The force of her magic, her emotion, reached it's peak and let out a violent burst of energy powerful enough to force Sayaka back a step.

Mami just stood at the opposite side of the apartment, behind the glass coffee table, her arms folded and her face with it's usual confident expression as her skirt was blown by the resulting force of Kyoko's magic. She stared the crimson Magical Girl down, not showing an ounce of intimidation. As if to prove her resolve, another net of yellow ribbons formed over the sliding glass door behind her, blocking off Kyoko's only other possible exit. "If you wish to act like a child, then I'm going to treat you like one. Now, if you want to calm down and approach this with some maturity..."

Sayaka gulped, wondering what Mami was thinking by saying something like that. Somehow, the words managed to throw Kyoko off a bit, causing a very slight reprieve from her intensity. However, once she took a moment to process what Mami had said, it came back in full force, maybe even more powerful.

"That's it!" Kyoko shouted, kneeling down into an attack ready position. "You're finished!"

She lunged forward with enough force, it was apparent she could clear the length of the entire apartment with a single leap.

She didn't lead with her spear, instead she had a hand outstretched, and the spear poised at her side with the tip facing behind her. In one long movement, she planned to push Sayaka out of the way, clearing a path for her spear to slash at the older Magical Girl.

"Kyoko stop!" Sayaka shouted, putting her hands up, and quickly pulling for her magic to summon her swords in a defencive posture. However, her spell was interrupted when yellow ribbons grabbed onto her arms and torso, and flung her to the side, out of Kyoko's path.

Sayaka gasped as her back hit the wall. In that same moment, Mami's arms dropped from their folded position at her chest. She summoned a musket, and readied her aim.

Kyoko's motion was thrown off, her feet touched down and she slashed her spear up into an uppercut motion.

Sayaka screamed, and she put her hands over her head. She heard the sound of shattering glass, preceded by a loud bang as Mami's musket blasted off a shot, and Kyoko flew back to her original location as quickly as she had lunged from it in the first place. Except this time, she landed with her back flat against the ground and she let out a pained grunt.

If she were in a standing position, Kyoko could easily fend off Mami's ribbons, but it was impossible to use her spear from the floor, and when a series of at least twelve ribbons bore down upon her, she was helpless to defend against them.

She managed to get up to her knees, but not quickly enough. The ribbons wrapped around her from every possible angle. Forcing her arms behind her back, and then tethering her to the ground, forcing her to stay in that kneeled position. "GET THE HELL OFF OF!-" Her yells of protest turned into muffled speech as another ribbon found it's way onto her mouth and wrapped tightly around her head. One final one appeared around her neck, then tethered itself to the floor and pulled tight, forcing her head down, and making her stare at the ground.

"M-Mami?" Sayaka asked, shocked by what her senpai had just done to her girlfriend.

"Sorry for using a method like this." Mami said calmly, ignoring Sayaka for now and instead addressing Kyoko. "But I _do_ have neighbors. That single gunshot could cause enough of a panic, but I suppose I can just claim I dropped something heavy if anyone figures out it came from here. That won't be believable if it happens a second time, or if the sound of you carrying on can also be heard."

Kyoko shifted around as much as she could, trying to struggle and break free, but having no success. She continued to scream through the gag. She forced her head up as much as she could, which wasn't much, but just enough to stare at Mami through the tops of her eyes, so her senpai could see the fury that resided within them.

"Mami!" Sayaka said, finally fully registering the events and getting up from her place against the wall. She watched her step as she moved across the apartment. Kyoko's spear had broken Mami's glass table and while most of the glass was in that one location, a few shards managed to scatter across the living room. "This is too much!" Sayaka said, protesting Mami's actions then quickly kneeling down by the bound up Kyoko.

Kyoko's shoulders shifted, and she growled. Sayaka knew that Mami was probably right about doing this. When Kyoko was determined to do something, she tended to not back down. Still, it didn't quite sit right with her. She put her arms around Kyoko's shoulders and hugged her. "Come on, just relax." She whispered, rubbing Kyoko's back and trying to calm her down. Kyoko's breathing remained heavy, but she let her head drop down, and closed her eyes tightly, allowing herself to be taken in Sayaka's embrace.

"Sayaka." Mami said calmly. "Use your healing magic on her. I enchanted that bullet so it would only result in an impact shot, but it's still possible that it injured her."

Sayaka gritted her teeth and looked up at Mami, who had a somewhat guilty frown on her face. "What were you thinking?!" Sayaka shouted at her, "You know how Kyoko is! You didn't have to provoke her like that!"

Mami's eyes shifted away, but she didn't try to defend herself. She simply spoke with a docile tone and said, "Kyoko, if you've calmed down I'll remove some of the bindings." Kyoko didn't answer, and Mami took the fact that her kohai didn't try to curse her out through the gag as an answer in the affirmative. She disenchanted the ribbons around Kyoko's neck and mouth, but left the rest of them as they were. Rightfully unconfident that Kyoko wouldn't try to storm off if the bindings were removed completely.

"Don't bother wasting your magic, Sayaka." Kyoko said, still staring at the ground. Her voice was hard. "A shot like that didn't do crap to me."

Sayaka kept her hands on Kyoko's shoulders, but pulled back enough to get a better look at her. Kyoko's head lifted a little, but she couldn't bring herself to look Sayaka in the eyes. "Are you ok?" Sayaka asked, softly.

Kyoko's frown deepened. "Whatever."

Then, the doorknob of the front door turned, but the ribbon barrier was still in place and stopping the person on the other side from getting in. They tried knocking instead.

Sayaka glanced over to the door, then back to Kyoko. "That's Madoka…" She said, "I… need to be the one to tell her. Are you sure you're going to be ok?"

Kyoko just nodded her head solemnly.

Mami disenchanted the barrier, but left Kyoko tied up. Sayaka was a bit upset about it, but she also knew Mami was right. There was still a good chance that Kyoko would bolt out the door and rush to the lab if she was given the chance. Part of her loved Kyoko's strong will, and hard headedness, but she knew the bindings were for Kyoko's own good, to keep her from doing anything rash.

She opened the door, and as she suspected, Madoka was standing on the other side. The pinkette's hands were clasped at her chest as she looked up at her childhood best friend. The hopeful expression in her eye's broke Sayaka's heart, and Madoka must have seen this because that hopeful expression quickly sank away.

"Sayaka?" Madoka asked, as Sayaka took her hand and led her in. Madoka looked around with wide eyes. She saw the broken table, she saw Kyoko bound up and not looking at anyone, and Mami stood across the room, likewise just letting her eye's sink to the side. "W-what's...?"

"Come on." Sayaka said, with a low voice. "Watch your step." And she led her around the broken table, and out to the balcony.

Once they were outside, Sayaka instantly threw her arms around Madoka and hugged her deeply. She could feel it in Madoka's sudden sharp breathing, that Madoka understood everything without having to ask… except, she didn't know _everything_. She didn't know about Homura's injuries, and it was on Sayaka to tell her. "W-wheres H-Homura?" Madoka asked, her voice cracking up. Her arms fell loosely at her sides, not able to return the hug. Her whole body felt limp in Sayaka's arms. "W-where?"

"Madoka…" Sayaka said, crying herself. "I'm so sorry."

* * *

"Homura!" Madoka shouted with excitement in her voice, as Homura appeared from out of the labyrinth and the high-heeled shoes of her Magical Girl costume touched down softly on solid ground in the real world. Homura smiled, as she brushed her hair back, then started walking over to Madoka, who had been waiting for her return.

However, after only taking a step, a sword whizzed through the air and stuck into the ground a few steps in her path. Madoka gasped, but Homura simply glanced upward with a disinterested expression on her face.

Sayaka's cape trailed behind her as she jumped down from her hiding place. She landed in a crouch and enchanted another sword into her grasp as she raised back up into a defencive stance. "You stay the hell away from her!" She shouted at Homura, pointing the tip of her weapon at the dark haired Magical Girl.

"S-Sayaka?"

Sayaka raised her white gloved hand, brushing her cape to the side. With a flat palm, she signaled Madoka to stay back. "Just stay back, leave this to me."

"So, you've decided to take the contract after all." Homura spoke in her usual cool tone. "You fool. I tried to warn you. You should have taken my advice."

Sayaka gritted her teeth. She gripped her sword with both hands again, and lowered into a more attack ready stance. "Why? Because now you're going to try and kick me out of your _territory_ , right? That's all you care about, isn't it?"

Homura scoffed. "You are the one standing here trying to pick a fight with _me_. Not the other way around."

"Sayaka." Madoka said, stepping forward. "Would you just slow down? I'm sure there's just some kind of misunderstanding… Homura's not a bad person!"

"Madoka…" Sayaka said, a bit more solemnly. "I know how you feel about her, and this is going to be hard to hear, but just trust me. She's no good. She…" Apparently Sayaka didn't want to say this next part to Madoka directly, so instead she returned her intense gaze on Homura.

"Kyubey told me all about how long you have been stalking Madoka! It started before we even met you! That thing with the cat? If I didn't know any better I would say you staged it somehow, but I know that's not possible… however, it did give you the perfect opening to introduce yourself as some kind hero and start working Madoka over." Sayaka grunted, "Ah! I'm such an idiot for not seeing it sooner! I knew there was something fishy about you, but I just couldn't put my finger on it!" Her eyes darkened. "Now I know _everything…_ So what's your deal? Are you just some kind of freak or what?"

Sayaka's words finally seemed to have an effect on Homura. Her eye's became somewhat more intense as she stood there, her hair blowing in the wind in sync with Sayaka's cape.

"Sayaka!" Madoka shouted. She ran forward until she was between the two of them, then turn to face Sayaka. "I-I don't know what's gotten into you, but you need to stop!"

Sayaka's sword lowered as she addressed Madoka. "Everything she says is a lie, Madoka. I'm telling you, don't trust her! She's manipulating you!" Sayaka looked past Madoka to return her stare on Homura. "Everything I just said is true, that's why she isn't denying it! Because she can't! Go ahead and ask her yourself."

Madoka turned to face Homura, not quite being able to believe Sayaka's words at first, but the guilty expression she saw on Homura's face worried her. "Homura? Tell Sayaka she's wrong! You wouldn't do anything like that? Right?"

Homura's voice lost some of it's coolness. "Sayaka Miki. You should take some lessons in holding your tongue. You speak out of turn, and your friendship with Madoka is the only reason I'm giving you a pass. Madoka, it's true that I was keeping an eye on you before we were formally introduced. I had reasons for this, and I planned to explain all of this to you when the time was right. However, I won't be doing so with _her_ standing there and giving her unnecessary _commentary_ on the situation."

"O-ok… Well, i-if it is true, then I'm sure you at least had good reasons. Right?"

Homura smiled. "Of course."

"Like how you bombed the mall?" Sayaka shouted, stepping forward and getting between the two of them once again. "Oh yeah, Kyubey told me all about THAT too. I'm not letting you anywhere near Madoka!"

"Sayaka," Madoka started. "She was only-"

"Madoka, she bombed a public place, and then lied about it." Sayaka replied. "Face it, she's dangerous. Why can't you see that?"

Homura brushed back her hair and let out a long sigh. "I could try to argue my side of the story, but you're far too stubborn to listen to anything I have to say, Sayaka Miki. So, fine. I'll keep my distance for now, but this is only out of respect for the fact that you are Madoka's close friend."

"Wait, Homura, you don't have to-"

"However, my goals remain unchanged. I will not let Madoka make a contract... I won't be far away." Homura turned, and began to walk away.

"Heh, yeah, that's right! You better run!" Sayaka yelled.

Homura stopped. "Miki. I tried to warn you before."

Sayaka frowned.

" _'Things have a way of happening as they are suppose to'_. Remember? You did not heed my advice, and now look at what you are."

"What are you saying?" Sayaka said, clenching a fist.

"I'm saying fate doesn't loosen its hold, it merely shifts it's grip." Homura turned around and stared straight at the bluenette with her cool, steady eyes. "I wonder how long it'll be before you come to hate what you have now?"

Sayaka kept her blade down, since Madoka was so close, but her hands reflexively tightened on the hilt. She looked like she had more to say, but Homura didn't wait to hear whatever it was. She stopped time, leaving them with those last words, and from their point of view she disappeared in the blink of an eye.

She didn't like leaving Madoka like that, and took a moment to just look at the pinkette.

There was no point in getting into an argument with Sayaka, especially a freshly contracted Sayaka. Right now that fool was too big headed with her own image of being a hero, and she conveniently had Homura to cast as her villain. If Homura were to get into a confrontation with her in front of Madoka right now, it would only damage their relationship, so she had no choice but to just back away and let Sayaka stick her own foot in her mouth.

Well, soon Sayaka would have a new villain to go after...

Homura doubled back, past the two motionless girls, and walked down the street a little ways until turning into an alleyway. She found a fire escape which led to the roof and took it all the way to the top. There, she saw the red-devil, crouched down in her hiding place, holding a bag of potato chips, and spying on the scene below.

Homura resumed time. "So, did you enjoy the show?"

Kyoko startled as she spun around, then let her eyes sink into an annoyed expression. "I'm REALLY getting tired of you doing that." She stuffed a handful of chips into her mouth, and a few crumbs shot away from her lips as she spoke. "I mean like, _seriously_." She seemed to think something over for a moment, then held the bag out to Homura. "Want some?"

Homura grinned, "No thank you. I'll pass."

Kyoko shrugged, "Whatever…" She finished chewing, and swallowed. "So, I take it the blue girl is Mami's little trainee, huh?"

"That's correct."

Kyoko grinned. "Just so you know, I'm calling dibs on that one. Something about her just really rubs me the wrong way." She peaked over the buildings edge to spy on the two girls some more. She must have used magic to enhance her hearing. Homura could do the same if she wanted, but she didn't bother. "So how about the pink one? We taking her out too?"

"No." Homura said, coldly. "Absolutely not, and don't you dare think about laying a single finger on her."

Kyoko looked back to Homura with a raised eyebrow. "Alright chick, first off, I'll let it slide this time, but you'd better watch how you speak to me in the future. Secondly, I was just asking. Ok?"

"And I was just making sure we are clear. Madoka is not to be touched."

"Fine, fine… _whatever_. As long as she doesn't contract, what do I care?" Kyoko snickered. "So, what's your relationship with her anyway?"

Homura sighed, preparing herself for Kyoko's reaction to the answer she was going to give. "She's my girlfriend."

As expected, Kyoko ended up bursting out laughing. "What? No way! So what the blue girl was implying with the whole stalking thing was true? Heh, and sounds like you've got pinky wrapped around your finger after all. I'll tell you, you're one scary chick."

"It's not like that at all, you are jumping to conclusions." Homura sighed, brushing it off, then gave one of her closed lip smirks. "It seems you and Sayaka are rather similar to each other in that way."

Kyoko raised an eyebrow. "What the heck is that suppose to mean?"

"Nothing." Homura put her foot up on the ledge as she watched Madoka and Sayaka continue down the street, it seemed they were still arguing with each other. "When you go to fight Sayaka, just keep a few things in mind. Mainly, she in very unskilled, but she makes up for that in resilience. Her wish was to heal a boy's illness, and as a result, her magic grants her a considerable healing factor."

Kyoko scooted up, and joined Homura in watching the two girls, but she mainly focused on the blue one… _Sayaka_. "So, she wasted her wish on helping someone else..." Despite herself, Kyoko couldn't help giving the girl a sympathetic frown. "She's one of them, huh?"

* * *

Kyoko sat on the couch, her heels on the cushion with her toes curling over the edge, and knees pointing up in the air. Mami disenchanted most of the ribbons a while ago, but left her arms bound behind her back, and added one additional ribbon around her ankle which tethered her to the couch leg.

The couch was pushed back a few feet from where it normally is, so Mami would have room to work on cleaning up the glass. She occasionally would glance up at Kyoko, wanting to say something, but Kyoko seemed to be making a point of ignoring her presence right now.

Mami couldn't help wondering... was she right to stop her?

If they were to just attack the lab, would they actually win? Kyoko may have been impulsive, but she wasn't stupid, and she knew more about the lab than any of them. She seemed confident they would succeed, or at least, Kyoko thought all it would require is herself and Sayaka.

Mami knew all she had to do. Disenchant the ribbons, stand up, and say 'do as you wish', then walk out of the room. Sayaka wouldn't proceed without her blessing, though she likely wanted to take Kyoko's approach as well.

Mami glanced over to Sayaka who sat on the opposite side of the couch from Kyoko, with Madoka held in her arms. Madoka's eye's were closed, and her head rested against Sayaka's chest, but Mami didn't think she was fully asleep. She probably stayed up all night waiting for Homura, so despite whatever condition she was in emotionally, her eyes wanted rest.

These girls… How could she let them do it? She lost Kyoko once, and at one point she almost lost Sayaka as well. If they followed Kyoko's plan, they would become murderers. But how else could they help Homura? The method using the witch's barrier was the best they could come up with, and it failed. A full on assault could work in theory, but killing humans is a line Mami was not willing to cross.

Then, she had a thought that made her feel terribly guilty. Her hands stopped working with the brush and dustpan she had been using to scoop the glass shards into a trash bag.

She thought… Since Homura failed to escape... it would be better if she just died, and were actually killed by the witch.

Kyoko's accusation was right, Mami realized. She loved Kyoko and Sayaka with all her heart, Madoka too, but Homura was nothing more than an ally to her. She set the tools down and stood up, putting a hand over her heart and looked down at the mess that still had yet to be complete. It was horrible, she knew, but she couldn't help that realization from dawning on her. If Homura had just died, it wouldn't be the outcome she wanted, but at least there would no longer be a need to save her, and she wouldn't have to worry about her two kohai getting in over their heads.

"I'm… going to go make some tea." Mami said, and quickly walked past the couch and into the kitchen on the other side of the room. Once she was out of sight, instead of getting to work on making tea, her elbows touched down on the counter, she buried her face in her hands, and let out a deep breath.

In truth, her feelings toward Homura ran much deeper. After all, Homura was the one who crushed her view on what exactly Kyubey was, and what exactly it meant to be a Magical Girl. She didn't hate Homura for it, and she couldn't blame her. It wasn't Homura's fault that things are the way they are, after all. Still, the revelation left a bitter taste in Mami's mouth, one she didn't even fully realise was there, but now her feelings of resentment were becoming clear. Wrong or not, she resented Homura for taking away the image she had of her life.

 _What kind of leader am I?_ She thought. _What right do I have to stop them?_

She took another deep breath, regained her composure, then went to fetch the tea kettle from the cabinet.

An assault on the lab was a bad plan, she assured herself. They needed to think of something else. It was too risky for their own safety, and there was no guarantee they could get through those metal doors. Most of all, Mami didn't want to see Kyoko go down the wrong path again, or even Sayaka for that matter… The powers of Magical Girls were meant for destroying witches: witches that threaten humanity. If they were to use their powers against humans… and end up killing one… _No_ , that's not something they could do. Ever.

Mami got the water heating, then walked back out to the living room. She stood in the threshold when she saw that Madoka's head was up.

"Guys…" Madoka said, her voice was low, and though Sayaka kept one hand on her shoulder, she stared at the ground as she spoke. "Thank you so much for everything you have tried to do… but… I don't want to see anyone else in danger. So…" Madoka's voice trailed off, whatever it was she wanted to say, she was having trouble saying it.

"Madoka?" Sayaka asked.

"I… I'll just make a wish… ok?"

 _Of course!_ Mami thought all of a sudden, why didn't she consider suggesting that before? She wouldn't want Madoka to contract, but this situation has spiraled out of control, and there was that simple solution right there this entire time. She could make it so Homura was right here in this apartment right now, or make it so the lab didn't exist, or that Homura had never been captured in the first place.

They should, as a group, take some time and discuss exactly what the wish should be so there were no mistakes. Mami stepped forward to give her input.

"No." Kyoko stated abruptly, and Mami stopped where she stood.

Madoka looked over to Kyoko. "B-but…"

Kyoko stood up. "Do you really think Homura would want that?" Her arms were still bound behind her back, but she put one foot on the couch, and stood over Madoka, looking down at her with an intense expression. "You know as well as I do that Homura would rather die in that place then have you make a contract!"

Madoka stood up as well, looking back into Kyoko's eyes and putting on that strong-willed face of hers. Her voice was small, but something about that fact made it all the more powerful when she became determined. "I don't care!" She shouted, "I'm tired of just sitting here and doing nothing! Everyone's always protecting me! But that's not fair! I-I should do something, I want to-"

"You idiot!" Kyoko growled, leaning forward and closing the distance between them even further, forcing Madoka to shrink down a little. "I'm telling you, that's not a solution!" Knowing Kyoko, if she had use of her arms she would be pulling Madoka up by her collar right now. Lacking that, she was just going for the meanest facial expression she could muster to try and intimidate the pinkette.

Sayaka tried to chime in and break them up, but _MAD_ oka shouted right back at Kyoko, drowning Sayaka out.

Madoka pushed her forehead into Kyoko's to try and resist her, and shouted directly in her face. "It's my choice! I'm tired of seeing everyone in danger! So just let me fix things! Just let me-"

All of a sudden, Kyoko's foot slid away from it's position on the couch, and she swung her leg out in an arc. Her shin connected with the back of Madoka's knees, causing the pinkette to lose her balance and fall back into her seat. Kyoko's foot then came up in one quick motion, and planted itself on Madoka chest, pinning her to the couch.

"Kyoko! Stop!" Sayaka said, grabbing Kyoko's shoulder to try and pull her away, but Kyoko suddenly had this aura about her that stopped Sayaka from interfering any further. Mami must have felt it too, because she stepped forward to intervene, but also ended up stopping.

"Let me explain something…" Kyoko spoke slowly, and very clearly. "It's something you should already know, so I don't know why I need to say it in the first place." Madoka stared up at her with wide eyes, now thoroughly intimidated out of arguing. "If you make a contract… Homura would never forgive you. Even if she did… _I_ would never forgive you. So just forget about it, understand? We'll find a way. You don't need to go sticking your nose in and creating new problems."

"B-but… I-"

Kyoko leaned forward, her facial expression growing even darker, and Madoka sank further into the couch. "We're a team. Got it? You don't get to try and play hero and throw your own life away." She straightened her posture, shifting her gaze away from Madoka and instead focusing on Mami.

Only Kyoko could maintain that kind of power while tied up. Her expression was dark, but powerful. Her foot was still pinning Madoka to the couch, but it was clear that she wasn't using much pressure and it was simply her aura which kept Madoka in place. "We're a team, so we're all going to talk things out and agree on a plan together. Isn't that right, Mami?"

There was something inspirational about Kyoko in that moment, and all Mami could do is nod her head in agreement.

Then they heard the sound of Leiko clearing her throat. They all glanced over to the small snowy-haired girl who was leaning against the wall right outside of the computer room. Kyoko took her foot off of Madoka so she could turn around and face Leiko as well.

Leiko pushed her glasses up. "I was waiting for a lull in the drama before bringing this up, but seeing as that's not going to happen any time soon; Kay Sakura got an email from the lab. They want her to come have another meeting with Homura tonight." She folded her arms. "If you people were by any stretch of the imagination ' _normal',_ I'd just assume the answer is no, but… well, just incase you all wanted to hatch some crazy plan, I figured I should bring it up before answering." She let out a sigh and continued. "Something interesting to note, is they didn't mention Homura's attack on the lab, or her… _substantial injuries_ … Or, the fact that she isn't even _conscious_ right now."

Sayaka thought it over. "So what does that mean?"

"It means it's a trap." Leiko said, simply. "What I don't get is, it's too obvious that it's a trap."

"What do you mean?" Mami asked.

"Well… A certain Dr. Kaiji already knows all about us, and with that in mind we would have to be crazy to send Kyoko back in there… of course, this groups sanity is indeed questionable, but I doubt they realize that… Anyway, all I can figure is they decided _no harm in trying,_ and threw out some extremely transparent bait, hoping on the off chance we might go for it."

"W-wait." Madoka said, sitting up. "What if this Dr. Kaiji _didn't_ tell anyone what he discovered about Kyoko? I mean… he let her go… So..."

"Yeah, but that's only thanks to Kyoko's little mind trick spell. Right?" Leiko asked, glancing over to Kyoko.

Kyoko shrugged. "Not really… I mean, it's hard to say, but when I use that kind of magic it's actually pretty weak. I don't know whether or not he would have just let me go anyway."

"Well, if Kaiji DID keep it to himself, then why would they be trying to lure Kay back in?" Leiko pointed out. "The fact that they set up this trap in the first place is enough evidence that Kaiji isn't on our side."

"Um… Then why don't we just call him again?" Madoka asked. "I-I mean, it can't hurt, right? And… when I talked to him before he didn't really sound like he was all that bad of a person… so..."

Leiko sighed and pushed up her glasses. "He will probably do nothing but lie, but yeah, I suppose it can't hurt to try. Maybe he'll accidentally reveal something to us as well."

"Wait…" Sayaka said, "Are we talking about sending Kyoko in there again? We can't do that, it's way too risky! After everything that's happened, that would just be crazy."

"I know." Leiko said, in her dry, half sarcastic tone of voice. "That's what _I'm_ saying."

Mami didn't understand why Kyoko was so against Madoka making a contract. Or Homura for that matter. She understood that it had very big drawbacks, and shouldn't be used unless absolutely necessary. When compared to the current problem at hand, and how hopeless it seemed, it didn't seem like such a bad solution to her. She certainly agreed with Sayaka that sending Kyoko back in as Kay was a bad idea, unless they could see some sure-fire benefit to doing this.

"Anyway." Kyoko said, "Let's give Kaiji a call, on the off chance this guy might be on our side, it'd be worth knowing… I mean, think about it, wouldn't it be dangerous for him to admit that he just let me go? That's something maybe he'd want to keep to himself, you know?"

"Then why are they trying to lure you back in? Why would they try to keep Homura's condition secret from you?" Leiko asked.

"How the hell should I know?" Kyoko sneered, "I'm just saying no harm in calling and seeing what the deal is. Also, they didn't hide Homura's medical records, yet they lied in the email, so that kind of an inconsistent move proves they haven't figured out your hacking thing yet. Right? And there hasn't been anything coming through about Kay being a double agent… has there?"

"No, and… That's… a good point…" Leiko said, pondering the logic and realizing Kyoko was right. "Unless there is another angle to this thing that we haven't considered yet…"

"Anyway, I-" Kyoko was cut off when they heard a knock on the door. Mami was the closest, so she walked over and peaked through the peephole.

"There's a police officer outside." She said to the room, "Kyoko, if I disenchant the ribbons will you promise not to run off?"

Kyoko barred her teeth and narrowed her eyes at Mami. "Mami, I've been trying to be cool about all of this, but just for the record… you are _seriously_ pissing me off today. But yeah, I won't go anywhere."

Mami disenchanted the ribbons, and opened the door. The officer wasn't very tall, but had a thick body build and a a gruff beard wrapped around his chin. He held up his badge, he was a detective, and gave Mami a surprisingly warm smile that his rough appearance wouldn't hint at. "Good morning miss, sorry for disturbing you so early. I'm Detective Ishida Toshikowara, and I'm investigating a…" He looked past Mami, saw the broken glass, and his kind tone trailed off into something slightly more interrogative. " _a noise complaint_ …" It was clear he didn't come to the door with the intent of asking to come in, but now that he could clearly see something was amiss, that had changed. "Would you mind if I come in for a moment and ask you a few questions?"

* * *

Tsarina sat atop the roof of the lab with her legs crossed, and her hands folded neatly in her lap. Occasionally a wind would blow, but she couldn't feel it. She could hear it, and see it on the leaves of the small immature trees which lined the parking lot, but while she was in her nonphysical state, it would just pass right through her.

It took too much concentration to keep her body physical, and also required she spend more magic, so she usually allowed herself to exist in this nonphysical state, naturally expending just enough to keep herself from disappearing entirely.

This was the same reason she always slept on the roof, or anywhere else she could find that was high up. While sleeping, her body had a tendency to want to drift away. On the roof it didn't matter too much, because she would just drift further up into the sky while she napped, and could easily fly down again when she woke.

Indoors, she would drift through walls, and god forbid she'd end up going through an actual person. That was the worst. Whenever that happened, it would result in a very odd feeling. It was hard to put into words, but she supposed it was akin to that shivering feeling from nails on a chalkboard, except a hundred times more intense. Apparently it affected whoever she was unfortunate enough to pass through as well, because whenever it did happen she could hear them complain about _feeling cold_ , which wasn't exactly what she felt, but it was clear it affected them in some way as well.

She wondered why that was? Walls and inanimate objects she could pass through and not feel a thing, living being however, were a totally different story. It didn't hurt or anything… it just felt… _weird..._ and very unsettling.

Maybe Kyubey would have an explanation for why that was. She'd have to remember to ask him the next time she saw him.

After dealing with _Miss. Test Subject's_ little escape attempt, she stuck around in the test room just long enough to see her get put to sleep. Then she floated back to the roof of the lab to get some sleep herself, when she noticed the white van that had been suspiciously parked in the very back corner of the parking lot. She didn't care much for it, and only stayed awake because she wanted to watch the sunrise first.

Then when Mr. Kaiji went out to his car, she witnessed a bunch of men in black suits jump out and attack him. She raised an eyebrow, and watched as the man she had once mistakenly thought to be her father's good friend get thrown into the van and taken away.

"Hm… I wonder what that's about." She said to herself, not realizing Kyubey had been sitting next to her until he spoke.

"Are you going to go after them?"

She glanced down at him, then shrugged her shoulders. "Why should I care? Whatever it is, it serves him right. I practically handed that other Magical Girl to him on a silver platter, and he just let her go! Then after that, he tried to get daddy fired. I thought about killing him after that, but I never really got a chance to." Her blue lips pierced up into a smile, "I thought the witch would get him. I watched those spider-things attack him. That would have been really fitting. Homura ended up saving him though, and he wasn't alone since then." She shrugged her shoulders again, "Not that I really _need_ to kill him, I'm just saying he'd deserve it."

Tsarina sighed. "On a different subject. I was wondering, do you know why it feels weird when I pass through another human? When I pass through walls, it might as well be the same as floating around through thin air, but passing through anything that's living is different."

Kyubey stared back at her with his beady little red eyes and said, "Sorry, I don't know anything about that. From what I can tell there would be no physical explanation, but I suppose it could have something to do with what you humans call _souls_."

Tsarina frowned at this answer, then asked another question that had been bothering her. "Homura said that you are an alien. Is that true?"

"My species is indeed from another planet, so yes, I am what you would call an alien. Why? Does that bother you?"

"No… not really. I mean, it's not like I thought that you were a normal animal or something. I just thought… well, nevermind it was stupid."

"You do seem different than most human girls I've interacted with. They usually have more to say than that."

"Whether you are an alien or not doesn't matter. Right? Either way, it's not like you can reverse the contract, you told me as much even before I made the wish. It's my fault for not thinking things through…"

She raised her fingers to her cheek and pressed down. There was no warmth. Physical or not, this body was dead. If it could react to the normal world, it would probably rot. It was only thanks to magic she was able to keep this body from disappearing completely. She didn't know where exactly this body wanted to disappear to, but she had been trapped there before. That's why she had to be careful, and not cross that line between existence and nonexistence ever again.

She no longer needed to breath, but using breath as an analogy was the best way she could describe it. People don't need to think about each breath they take, it happens naturally, just like a heartbeat continues naturally. But with breathing, one could think about it, and choose to stop breathing if they wanted. That's how her existence was. She naturally expended enough magic to anchor her body to her SoulGem, and thus stay in the realm of existence. She could stop that flow of magic if she wanted, and her body would begin to disappear even further beyond her current nonphysical state.

If she were to go too far, then just like death being irreversible, bringing herself back into existence would also be outside her control. In that case, the only thing that would be left of her in this world, would be her SoulGem. She had crossed that line before, not purposely, but when she did, she ended up trapped in that place for ten years.

"Say Kyubey…" Tsarina asked cautiously. She decided to drop the ' _sama'_ from his name. She didn't want to openly admit this, because she now felt silly for thinking it, but she originally thought him to be some kind of divine being. An angel, maybe, or some kind of kami. "Do you really think my father will be able to find a way to fix me?"

"If he really is as intelligent as you say he is, then I don't see why not." Kyubey answered. "It wouldn't be the first time you humans have gone past our expectations. When one of our drones crashed in the American deserts we never dreamed that it would lead to something like the cyber revolution on your planet. That little mishap put your species at least a few hundred years ahead of its time. There's no reason there couldn't be a repeat of that once a scientist like your father discovers the existence of SoulGems." Kyubey looked up at Tsarina, and his bushy tail waged once as he stared at her with his beady red eyes. "It wouldn't surprise me if you Humans are able to unlock secrets with the SoulGems that not even we are aware of yet."

Tsarina let a smile hit her lips. Kyubey wasn't giving her any guarantees, she supposed he couldn't do that, but it made her hopeful at least. If anyone could do it, it was her father. Although, she also realized she would eventually have to reveal herself to him. That was a scary idea for her, because she didn't know how he might react.

She looked at the back of her hand, examined her colorless skin, and frowned. She hated this body, and she hated what she'd become. The idea that she would be like this forever was terrifying to her, and that's why she needed to cling onto this small thread of hope.

She turned her hand around and instead looked at the SoulGem embedded in the center of her palm. The light blue gem was encased in a golden frame, and almost as if it were responding to the attention she paid it, it started to sparkle. It was pretty, and she didn't hate the powers that it gave her, but she did hate what it represented. She had to hold onto it, though. It was the only thing that stopped her from disappearing completely again.

The simple idea of going back to that lonely, hopeless place was enough to make her heart sink. She wasn't entirely conscious while she was there, but she was at least vaguely aware of the passage of time, and that the world she knew was leaving her behind, while she stayed trapped in limbo. She had no feelings, no thoughts, only vague images and impressions of the life she had lived before making her foolish wish. There was nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to touch. It was hell.

She might have been trapped there forever, but something happened that let her reconnect with her SoulGem and come back to reality. It had to do with the Walpurgisnacht. It's death caused something of a shockwave which thinned the fabric of reality just enough for her SoulGem to strengthen its hold on her, and pull her back into the real world.

On that day, she felt something. It was a slight pull of energy, and for the first time in nearly ten years she opened her eyes. She saw light. She reached for it, and grabbed onto it. Next thing she knew, she found herself in a room with high shelves, all filled with various different objects which were either cased inside plastic bags or inside bins. It only took her a moment to identify it as a police evidence room, but she had no idea why she was there.

The thing she grabbed onto? It was her SoulGem, and kneeling in the middle of that room by herself, she stared at it just as she was now. Even while trapped in limbo it held onto her, if only by a thread, and kept just enough of her existence intact for her to come back.

She didn't fully understand what was going on at first, the only idea that made sense to her is that she died and was now a ghost. She could walk through walls, it seemed like no one could see her, and she could fly. After finding a newspaper stand, she verified that time had moved on nearly ten years since making her contract, and it wasn't until running into Kyubey that she was offered an explanation for what was going on.

She supposed that she technically existed here in reality now, but just barely, and making herself solid enough to actually interact with this world required a little more concentration.

It took her a while to learn how to become physical, and even when was doing it her movements could be a bit clunky. She figured the best analogy for this would be that it was sort of like flexing a muscle. Flexing your arm muscle while trying to sign your name, for example, would make the movements of your hand less precise and thus your hand writing a little sloppier.

Whatever the case, she knew she couldn't go on like this. Thankfully, she wasn't totally conscious during her time in limbo, otherwise she was sure she would have gone mad. Or maybe, it's possible _some_ of her humanity _did_ slip away. She remembered pondering this as she stared down at Homura, lying screaming in a pool of her own blood. Shouldn't she have felt something? She didn't, though. All she could think is; why should I care about this girl's suffering, when I've already had so much of my own? If it was for a chance to become human again, she would gladly do it all over, a hundred times.

The sun finished its climb over the horizon, and the pretty orange color disappeared from the clouds and the sky turned blue. "Kyubey, I'm going to sleep now, ok?"

"Ok. Pleasant dreams." Kyubey said.

Tsarina fed some magic to her feet to make them physical enough to push off of the roof. Then she let herself become nonphysical again, and the momentum was enough to let her float a few meters into the air. She turned around in the air so her face wouldn't be in the sun, even if she couldn't feel it's warmth, and when she looked back to where she had been sitting she saw that Kyubey had already disappeared.

She curled herself into a ball, wrapping her arms around her legs, then closed her eyes and worked on letting herself drift off to sleep.

After healing Homura's wounds somewhat, and before leaving her there in the test room, Tsarina had done one more thing. She discovered that Homura had been keeping her SoulGem hidden by hiding it inside her body, alongside her ribcage where an X-ray could easily overlook it. Tsarina had broken a chip off the very tip of Homura's own machete and jammed it into her, near where the SoulGem was located. That would be enough for the technicians to look a little closer at that spot. Hopefully while removing the shard, they would also discover her SoulGem, and her father would finally be able to start making some progress.

Then, maybe this nightmare would finally come to an end...

* * *

 **As I said before, I decided to stagger out the flashbacks and just fit them in where I feel like they have some relevance to whatever's going on in the present. Originally, I thought to do them all in one shot, but decided that wasn't the best method (because knowing me, I would end up spending 5 chapters trying to explain everything that happened in the timeline, which wouldn't be much fun)**

 **Doing it like this also lets me cut back on the number of flashback scenes that will be required, and helps add to present events. So I think it's the right way to go.**

 **I'm sure some readers have noticed my update rate has slowed a tad. My explanation for this is the story is currently in a transitional phase, and it's a little tricky to get all the pieces in their proper places before I can get the ball rolling again. This is fine, and it's to be expected, but I have a feeling once that ball gets rolling and it gains some momentum the updates will become much more regular again.**

 **Thanks as always for reading, and an even bigger thanks to anyone who takes the time to give a review. I always appreciate the feedback and to know people are enjoying the story.**

 **Next update hopefully in 2-3 weeks.**

 **Oh, and there will be more stuff with Homulilly in the future, there just wasn't really a place for her in this chapter that I felt would have made sense.**

 **-Atomyst**


	22. Chapter 22

"Listen," Madoka said to Sayaka, who led the way through an alley dressed in her full Magical Girl uniform. "I know Homura can be hard to understand sometimes, and she can be a little extreme… but… you really do have the wrong idea about her."

Sayaka had been keeping herself close to Madoka over the last few days, and therefore Homura had been forced to keep her distance. Sayaka was out hunting familiars right now, and Madoka took _'wanting to tag along'_ as a chance to talk to her in private. She wanted to discuss Homura and hopefully bring Sayaka around to being a little nicer to her. She wasn't mad at Sayaka for feeling the way she did, she understood that Sayaka was just trying to look out for her, but Madoka knew she was mistaken about Homura and was hoping to clear the air a little.

"So you are just ok with the fact that she was stalking you?"

"She wasn't stalking me!" Madoka insisted, "She just didn't want me to end up making a contract with Kyubey."

"And why exactly is that her call?" Sayaka asked, as they reached a fork in the alleyway. Sayaka touched a finger to the SoulGem around her navel, and it let out a soft glow in response. After a moment of consideration, she opted for the left path. "Don't take this the wrong way..." Sayaka frowned, thinking over how to put it and realizing there really was no light way to put it after all. "Don't you think that seems a little _controlling_?"

As expected, those words managed to turn Madoka's face hot. Sayaka was her best friend though, and she knew she was just trying to be protective, so coming from her it wasn't quite enough to unleash _MAD_ oka. From anyone else, including Mami who she respected very much, Madoka wouldn't have accepted those words. "She's not controlling at all. You really are are wrong about that…"

"Besides all that, she's dangerous. Just because Mami trusts her doesn't mean I have to. Normal people don't just make light of bombing buildings, you know?"

"She did it to protect people from the witch, and you know the bomb didn't do much damage… I saw on the news that the kind of bomb she used wasn't even capable of actually demolishing anything, it just makes more smoke than anything else which is why it looked so bad at first."

Sayaka grunted and turned around to face her. "Madoka, what do you think your mom would say about you being with someone who, number one: stalked you, number two: committed an act of terrorism, and number three: lied to you about both of those things, and who knows what else?"

Madoka thought about it… what _would_ her mom say? Madoka didn't tell her parents about Homura yet, but it's not like they had been going out for _that_ long. It's not like she was trying to hide her from them or anything either. Actually, she probably would have already made the introduction, but the issue with Sayaka had been slowing her down. They were practically sisters after all, and Madoka didn't wanted to flat out ignor her concerns, even though Sayaka's opinions about Homura were all wrong.

"Did you even tell your mom about her at all yet?" Sayaka asked, as if reading her thoughts.

"I-I um…" Madoka hadn't figured out what she wanted to say yet, and stammered over her words.

Sayaka clicked her teeth, and with a dismissive tone of voice she said, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Madoka's hands clenched into little fists at her sides, and she watched the back of Sayaka's white cape as the taller girl continued to lead the way. Madoka suddenly couldn't ignore a certain burning inside her chest. What Sayaka just said, or rather, the _way_ she said it was… really hurtful.

"I-I think…" Madoka glanced down, and then back up to meet Sayaka's eyes when she turned to look at her. "I think my mom would actually trust my judgement! And even if she thought I might have been making a mistake, she would actually try to listen to what I had to say! Sh-she wouldn't just be imposing her own view on me the way YOU are doing right now! Especially when you don't even know the first thing about Homura!"

Madoka realized, the fact that Sayaka had even brought her mom into this in the first place was making her angry. It was as if Sayaka thought she had some kind of authority. She always did tend to have a dominating personality, but it was usually in a good way. However, ever since becoming a Magical Girl, Sayaka had changed.

After saying what she had to say, Madoka hoped Sayaka would get one of those guilty looks on her face, and apologize. As she and Sayaka stared eachother down, that's what Madoka was anticipating. However, when it didn't come, and Sayaka continued with that condescending expression, Madoka felt her anger rising even further, to the point that the hotness on her face was starting to make her eyes tear up.

Then, they heard a high pitched giggling sound which echoed through the high walls of the alley way. Sayaka's frown deepened as she glanced behind herself. "I don't have time for this." She said, brushing her cape to the side and turning toward the sound of the familiar. "I've got work to do."

Madoka didn't want to just stop the argument there, and although Sayaka was upsetting her, she didn't want her to be distracted while she fought the familiar and end up getting hurt.

After turning another corner in the alleyways, they saw it.

The familiar looked like it could have been derived from a child's crayon drawing. It stuck to the wall, an image of a little stick person drawn with chalk. It had a big head and a smiling face, sitting inside a boat. It's little stick arms held an ore and motioned as if it were rowing. With each pass of it's ore, blue crayon drawn ripples appeared under the boat for water. All the while, occasional bursts of high pitched laughter erupted from the tiny sailor. If it were not for the disturbing sound of it's laughter, Madoka thought it might look kind of cute.

Sayaka slashed her hand to the side, and with a flash of blue light a sword appeared suspended in the air beside her. She grabbed onto it, then drew back in a spinning maneuver, and lunged the blade at the familiar. The blade flew cleanly, whizzing through the air, and it looked as if she were going to impale her target with a single strike. However, not even a second before the attack would have landed, the familiar flinched out of the way at a speed it previously hadn't hinted at possessing, and avoided the blow.

It's little stick arms rowed even more furiously as it started making circles around the blade, and it started laughing wildly, clearly amused by it's own antics.

Sayaka grinned as she summoned two more blades on either side of her and grabbed a hold of them. "Alright… you wanna play games, huh?"

She jumped up in the air, and spun as she tossed one blade and then the other. The familiar seemed to take these attacks a little more seriously and quickly started rowing away, just barely missing each. Sayaka summoned another sword, and another, tossing them as quickly as she was able to summon them, sticking a trail of swords into the wall behind the tiny sailor as it vigorously rowed across the walls.

Sayaka chased after it, and Madoka followed behind as best she could. She kept throwing blades at it, until finally she had the idea to cut it off. She tossed a blade further up it's path, and it stuck into the wall right in front of the familiar. The creature shuffled back and forth for a moment while it thought where to go next. It opted for moving up the wall instead of across it now, but Sayaka went with the same method, forcing it to move down again, and then back the way it originally came.

Sayaka tossed out one more blade, surrounding the familiar with four, each one pinned as the corner to a square. The sailor simply rowed around in circles between them for a moment, before deciding to go between the first two.

"I don't think so!" Sayaka shouted, and thrusted her hand forward. The four blades emitted a blue hue, and the familiar stopped as if it had run into a solid wall. Madoka looked closely, and she could see translucent threads of light weaving between the four blades, creating a box and trapping the familiar inside.

It's laughter became more panicked as it rowed to one side of the box to the other, trying to find an exit.

"What's the matter?" Sayaka asked, chuckling lightly as she summoned one last sword into her grasp. "Got nowhere to run to now?" The tiny sailor's ore rowed furiously, it's laughter suddenly starting to sound more like screaming as it continued to bounce from one side of the box to another. "Don't worry, I'll make this quick!" Sayaka raised her sword high in the air and prepared to strike.

" _Hasn't anyone ever taught you not to play with your food?"_

"Huh?" Sayaka stopped. At first she thought Madoka had said it, but that thought only lasted a moment because it clearly was not Madoka's voice. When she glanced back to Madoka, Madoka looked equally confused, and they both glanced around, trying to figure out where it came from, until Madoka thought to look up.

"Look, up there!" She said, as she pointed.

Sayaka glanced up. Standing on a fire escape, there was a girl with long crimson red hair, wearing a tunic of a slightly darker red color and a pink skirt underneath, along with a pair of bejeweled combat boots. The girl had one hand resting behind her head as she leaned against the wall, and the other hand held a taiyaki with half of it's head missing. She chewed, presumably, on the other half of the fish cake's missing head.

Sayaka took particular notice of the red gem stitched into the tunic, right at the center of her chest, and grinned. "So, there are other Magical Girls around here after all. Give me a second to finish things off, then we can talk." Then she stepped towards the familiar who was still panicking inside the box, her sword at the ready.

The girl stuffed the last of her snack into her mouth, then somersaulted over the railing of the fire escape. She glided downward and landed between Sayaka and the familiar, then raised her hand. With a flash of red, a spear appeared in her grasp.

"Huh?" Sayaka flinched back, and her sword lowered in confusion.

The girl put her other hand on the spear, then spun around and slashed at the familiar. Or, that's what Sayaka _thought_ she was doing, but she actually slashed at Sayaka's miniature barrier, breaking the seal, and the familiar that was trapped inside quickly started rowing to freedom.

"What are you doing!" Sayaka shouted, and ran past the girl, trying to chase after the tiny sailor that was now zipping down the alleyways once again. It's laughter returned to the more amused variety.

Sayaka only made it a few meters down the alleyway, before getting stopped dead in her tracks when she collided with an invisible wall. She paced backwards, and looked up as a web of glowing red chains formed over the passageway, blocking her progress. The familiar's echoing laughter petered out as it rowed it's way to safety, far into the depths of the city's alleyways.

Sayaka quickly turned around, poising her sword as she stared down the Magical Girl, who had already produced another taiyaki from somewhere and started munching on its head. "What the hell was that all about! Why did you let it go?" Sayaka demanded.

The girl sighed, and lifted her spear up, placing its wooden bar to rest over her shoulder. "That ain't no witch, it's a familiar." The girl explained, "It's not going to have any GriefSeeds on it."

"Yeah! I know that, but it still needs to be taken out! It could end up hurting someone!" Sayaka shouted, gritting her teeth.

"Don't you know?" The girl's eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth raised into a wicked smile. She stepped towards Sayaka, her facial expression becoming incredibly dark. "That's exactly what you should _want_ to happen. Actually, you want that little familiar over there to kill at least three or four people. That way, it's guaranteed to turn into a witch, and then it will actually be worth hunting it down."

"W-what?" Sayaka started backing away from the girl, her eyes growing wide.

"I can see you are new to this whole Magical Girl thing, so there's a little tip for ya', rookie."

Sayaka's back hit the girls barrier, and her hands instinctively raised her sword. "So you are saying you would put innocent people at risk for a reason like _that_?"

The girl used two fingers to push the tail of her taiyaki the rest of the way into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, all the while with a bored expression on her face as her spear remained balanced over her shoulder. "Aw come on, don't tell me you are one of those _fighting for justice_ types." She let out a long sigh, "That figures."

"So what if I am!" Sayaka shouted, positioning her feet into a more attack ready position. "You got a problem with that?"

"W-wait!" Madoka said, stepping forward. Until now, she had been looking back and forth between the two girls anxiously, but she could see tensions were rising and she thought she should try to calm them down. "Y-you're both Magical Girls, right? So you shouldn't fight, ok?"  
The red girl lifted her hand towards Madoka, and with a snap of her fingers another barrier appeared, separating Madoka from the two of them and also cutting off Sayaka's only escape route. "Stay out of this, pinky. This is between Magical Girls."

"B-but! Why do you have to fight?" Madoka shouted, her hands against the barrier as she peered through its chain links.

"Because." The red haired girl glanced over her shoulder, a sharp fang poked out of the corner of her mouth. "I'm taking this city for myself. It's way too great of a piece of territory to be run by girls who don't even understand the most basic principle of being a Magical Girl."

Sayaka grimaced, "So, you're the type that's just all about territory. You don't care about helping people at all, do you? That means _you're_ the one who doesn't understand the first thing about being a Magical Girl! Someone who uses their magic selfishly has no right to call themselves one!"

The red girl burst into laugher, leaning down as she clenched her stomach, and clearly not the least bit worried about Sayaka's aggressive stance. "Seriously, not even a full week on the job and you already think you got it all figured out." She raised back up, "Let me give you some advice. You already wasted your wish on something useless, right? Then at least make some good use out of your magic, and stop with all this helping people crap." Her lips parted and her teeth bared in a malicious grin. "If you want, you can join me… Just help me take out Mami Tomoe, and I'm sure sharing this territory won't be a problem. That is, if you can understand the value of prioritizing GreifSeeds."

"What the hell are you saying?" Sayaka suddenly charged forward. "There's no way I'd do something like that!"

Sayaka jumped up and bore her blade down upon the Magical Girl, using both hands to swing with all her might. The red girl simply lifted her spear and blocked with the wooden pole, only needing one hand and not seeming to put much effort behind it. Sayaka's eyes were fierce, but her opponent's expression just seemed vaguely amused as Sayaka grunted and tried to overpower her.

"Alright, just thought I'd ask. Guess instead I'll have to show you what a _real_ Magical Girl can do!" Her other hand grabbed the spear, and her crimson hair bounced up as she released a strong pulse of magic. Her strength increased exponentially and she used her spear to fling Sayaka away from her.

Sayaka screamed as she tumbled through the air. Her flight came to a stop when her back slammed into the brick wall of the alley. She fell to the ground, and quickly got back to her feet, but couldn't ignore the shaking of her legs as she stood with her sword in a defensive posture.

The red girl walked towards her slowly, the tip of her spear scraping the ground and letting out sparks as it bounced over the tiny bumps of the concrete floor. Her hair and clothing waved from the force of her magic, and her eyes glowed crimson behind the shade of the alleyways.

"Wait!" Madoka screamed from the sidelines, helpless to do anything to stop them. "Please stop!"

* * *

 _They just had to say they thought they heard a gunshot_ , Ishida thought to himself, feeling rather unenthused about his current assignment. It was possible, he supposed, but rather unlikely in this part of the city. What was even more unlikely was figuring out which of these apartments the supposed gunshot had actually come from. It was a thirteen story complex, composed of at least a couple hundred single apartments..

It felt like busy work to him, and he doubted anything would come of it, but he supposed he'd do his due diligence, knock on a few doors, and give an inconclusive report. He obviously wouldn't question the whole building, unless something came up from one of the rooms he _did_ knock on. Otherwise, he would just do enough to give an acceptable report, then be on his way.  
If there was a similar complaint, or reports of two or more shots, he might take it more seriously. However, if the police force bent over backwards every time an old lady thought she heard something suspicious, their numbers would be spread pretty thin throughout the city, so sometimes they had to be a little picky about which calls they prioritized. That's just how it was.

There were bigger things he'd rather be working on right now. He was a detective and this grunt work was below him. However, a ' _shots fired'_ report was still well within his pay-grade, so whether he believed it was legitimate or not, he happened to be the most appropriately ranked officer closest to the area of the report...

… _Lucky me._

The first door he knocked on was the old woman in question who called it in. He asked if there had been any arguing prior to the noise, she said not that she could hear. He then asked if there were any suspicious characters around recently. According to her, there were a lot of them.

When he finished with his questions, he thanked her for her time then moved on to the apartment two doors down. Got no answer there, then tried the next door. He decided he wouldn't mention the word _gunshot,_ and simply ask if a noise was heard. That way he could let people come to the conclusion it was a gunshot on their own, and he could be more sure if that were really the case or not.

After a few more doors, as he expected, no one could say for sure if it was a gunshot, but indeed everyone he had talked to said they heard a bang. _Good enough,_ he figured, as he approach the final door he planned on knocking on. This would be plenty for his report, and then he could get back to the station and spend his time more prominently.

He could hear talking inside this door, but not clear enough to make out any words. He went ahead and knocked, not wanting to eavesdrop on a private residence that had no real need for suspicion. The talking stopped, he heard footsteps, and notice the peephole discolor as someone looked through on the other side. Then the door opened to a girl who he guessed was in middle school, or maybe early high school.

"Good morning miss, sorry for disturbing you so early." He said, holding up his badge. "I'm Detective Ishida Tashikowara, and I'm investigating a… noise complaint…"

He looked past the girl, saw the living room was littered with broken glass, and took note of the four other girls looking his way. His voice became more serious. "Would you mind if I come in for a moment, and ask you a few questions?" And he returned his badge to the inside pocket of his jacket.

 _Looks like I'm not getting off so easily after all,_ he thought to himself.

"Oh… well sure, that isn't a problem." The girl said with a smile, then stepped to the side and gestured him in. "Um… just watch your step, we had a little bit of an accident here."

Ishida regarded her suspiciously, but smiled as he stepped in. "What kind of accident exact-" He stopped mid sentence when he took a closer look at the other four girls in the room, specifically, the one's with pink hair and blue hair. He allowed himself to drop the interrogator persona, and grinned. "Well, look at this. Small world, huh?"

It took the blue haired girl a moment, but after looking at him more closely she got it. "Oh!" She said. The pink haired girl still seemed confused, and looked up at her taller friend, obviously not remembering. "From the mall? Right?"

"That's right." Ishida said, "You and that other black-haired friend of yours had the idea to bust out a window."

The bluenette laughed and scratched the back of her head. The pink girl tried to smile, but it's at that moment Ishida took note of the fact the pink girl seemed rather upset. "Oh yeah." The blue one said with a smile, "Eh… sooo, h-how's the investigation going? Did the person who did it ever get caught?"

"No." Ishida admitted, "There really isn't much to go on, but we are investigating the possibility it's related to the bombing at the shelter, from a few days before the storm." It was fine to tell them this much, he was just repeating what was already given away to local news stations anyway. In reality, the relation to the shelter bombings were only a vague suspicion which the media decided to blow a tad out of proportion. They had a way of doing that.

"Anyway…" Ishida continued, shifting back into his detective role. "There were reports of a possible gunshot in the area. Did any of you hear or see anything?" He glanced over all the other girls. The red-haired one seemed the least affected by his presence. He found that people tended to be at least a little on their guards around police no matter what, but the red girl didn't seem to care at all. When his eye's set on the white-haired girl in the black hoodie however, he couldn't help noticing the shifting of her eyes.

"A gunshot?" The blonde girl answered, diverting his attention away from the small, darkly dressed girl who stood away from the rest of the group. "Well… we did hear… something, I can't say for sure if was a gunshot but it's actually what led us to having this accident…" Her explanation was cut off when a sudden high pitched whistle came from the kitchen. "Oh! That's the tea… sorry, just one mo-"

"I'll get it!" The white haired girl quickly interrupted, then started walked towards the kitchen. Ishida couldn't help stroking his beard suspiciously as he watched her… his instincts were telling him something was going on here, but he didn't know what five regular (well, mostly regular) high school girls would want to hide. He certainly didn't think one of them had a gun in the house, or anything like that.

"Oh… Leiko-san." The blonde said, "You don't have to trouble yourself."

"It's alright!" The small girl called back from the kitchen. "I got it."

"Um…" The blonde looked back to Ishida and smiled. "A-anyway, as I was saying… We actually just pulled an all night studying session, that's why we are all here so early in the morning. We were just about to wrap things up, and I was gathering the books, when we heard that bang. It startled me enough to drop the books _… eh…_ right through the center of my table." She pointed at the mess with a doleful frown… Ishida didn't earn his detective's badge just through longevity, and therefore knew a forced expression when he saw one.

"I see…" He said, with a bit of an interrogative tone, and looked over the mess. Then he switched to a more friendly tone, "What were you studying?" He asked, just to fill the silence while he looked over the mess.

"Psychology."

He supposed dropping a stack of textbooks through the table _could_ cause it to break. However, he could see the faint glint of some more glass shards on the other side of the living room. If it had actually been broken in the manner she claimed, all the shards would have fallen directly downward, instead of spraying outward.

Then, he saw a small tear in the carpet about a meter away from the empty frame of the broken table in question. He kneeled down, carefully pushed some glass to the side as he examined the tear, then asked. "How did this happen?"

The blonde kneeled down to look closer. "Th-that tear? Um… well…" A delayed response… his suspicions were rising. "A-actually, I can't quite remember. It's been there for a while, you see." And that was all he needed.

Looking at the tear, he could tell it was a fresh cut. If it had been there for _a while,_ as she claimed, the fibers would have been frayed, but that was not the case. The fibers of the broken threads all ended in neat points, proving that it was a fresh cut. "I see." He stood back up, and glanced over each of the girls expressions. What were they hiding?

They lied about how the table had been broken, there was no doubt about that, and therefore they also lied about it being caused in reaction to this mysterious _bang_. Then that meant… they actually _were_ responsible for the bang? He still doubted these girls had a gun… but, there was _something_ going on here.

To add to things, the pink-haired girl seemed rather upset, and the one with white hair was also acting strangely, and seemed rather anxious to leave the room when he got here.

"Ok, mind if I just take a quick look around?" Ishida asked, addressing the blonde, as it seemed this was her house.

"Oh… ok, I don't see why not." she said.

With that, Ishida went to walking through the apartment, opening doors and just doing a quick three-sixty of each room. Since a gunshot is the only explanation he had to go with, however much he doubted it, the simplest way to prove it would be to find a bullet hole, and the simplest way to disprove it would be the lack of one. The tear in the carpet that he has been pondering certainly wasn't a bullet hole, however.

The first room he checked was the master bedroom, nothing out of the ordinary there. Then the second room was a guest room. No bullet holes, but the floor was littered with several articles of clothing, and the bed was unmade, making this room a sharp contrast to the neat and tidy master bedroom.

Then, when he entered the third room he saw a massive computer terminal. He couldn't help stopping and staring at it… it must have been worth at least half a million yen. There was a sheet of computer paper hung on the wall next to it with big bold print saying **'DON'T TOUCH'** , and someone had used a pink marker to draw an angry little emoticon at the bottom right corner of the sign.

As he turned out of the computer room, he couldn't help being a bit lost in thought. He had never seen a terminal quite like it… why would something like that be here in this house? Well, there were no bullet holes anywhere that he could see, and legally he really couldn't take this investigation any further. In theory, he could get a warrant and search the house more thoroughly, but there simply wasn't enough to call for that. He didn't even know what he was looking for. He supposed, there was something these girls wanted to hide, but whatever it was he would have to let it go.

Still, he couldn't help asking about the computer. "That's a pretty impressive setup you've got in there." He said to the blonde, "Where did you get it?"

"Actually it's not mine it's…"

"Touch my computer and I'll sue!" The white-haired girl shouted from the kitchen.

Ishida raised an eyebrow in the direction of her voice. The blonde shrugged. "Sorry, Leiko's a bit touchy about who goes near her stuff. She's a tad paranoid."

"I heard that!" The girl shouted again. "Seriously, I don't want it broken. I had some of it's components custom built. It's not cheap to replace that kind of stuff!"

Ishida laughed, "Ok then… well, it is pretty impressive anyway." He then sighed, figuring there was no longer any reason for him to stay. He didn't have any evidence to investigate these girls further, so whatever it was they were hiding they could keep their secret. "Well, I guess that wraps things up here. Thank you all for your time." And he turned towards the front door.

"Ok, have a good day." The yellow girl said with a smile.

"Have a good day." The blue and pink ones chimed simultaneously.

The red one maintained her bored expression until the blue girl nudged her on the shoulder, " _Kyoko._ " She whispered.

"Huh? Oh right, have a good day." Kyoko said, with a slight bow.

Ishida stopped, halfway out the door… _Kyoko_?

It was a bit of a stretch, but he couldn't ignore the thought that had just hit him. The files Kaiji asked him to retrieve revealed that a certain _Kyoko_ Sakura's name had been altered on all their data networks. It wasn't the most common name, but at the same time it wasn't incredibly uncommon either. He may not have thought anything of it if it were not for that elaborate computer terminal, and the fact he suspected they were hiding something in the first place.

He glanced back at Kyoko, but not too intently, to avoid letting them catch on to his suspicions. "Sorry." He said, addressing the blonde girl instead. "I almost forgot, there is just one more thing." He reached inside his coat and retrieved a small note pad with a pen fastened into it's metal spiral. "I just need to take your names. Since you heard the bang there is an off chance I might need to note you as witnesses. It's just procedure." He assured them with a smile as he clicked the pen open.

The white-haired girl was now coming out of the kitchen, balancing five tea cups in her arms.

"Ok, I'm Mami Tomoe."

"Sayaka Miki."

"Um… Madoka Kaname."

Ishida looked over to Kyoko and smiled, not giving anything away. "And you?"

"Hm? I'm Kyoko Sa-"

Suddenly, the white haired girl somehow managed to trip over her own feet, and the cups of tea she was carrying went flying. _"Waaaaahhh!"_ She screamed.

Kyoko turned, and tried to put her arms up to defend herself against the hot beverages, but of course simply putting her arms up did no good against the liquid. "Aaah! Geeze!" She screamed, rubbing her arms where she had been splashed. "What the hell is wrong with you! That's freaking HOT!"

"Ah-ah-ah!" The white girl stammered, quickly getting up and using the sleeves of her black hoodie to try and wipe off Kyoko's arms.

"What the hell, Leiko? Get off'a me!" Kyoko said, barring her teeth and trying to push the girl away.

"I-I'm so sorry Subaru-San!" Leiko said, "It was an accident!"

"Subaru-san?" Kyoko scoffed, "What the hells-"

Leiko stopped trying to wipe her off and instead bowed before her. "Please forgive me, Subaru-san!"

"Eh-eh… um…" Kyoko's eye widened, and then her lip twitched as she forced a smile. "Hey, I thought I told you to just call me by my personal name, _Kyoko_. You don't need to call me by my last name, _Subaru_. Heh." She laughed awkwardly… "Eh… anyway, don't worry about it, it's fine."

 _Clever…_ Ishida thought, narrowing his eyes. She didn't say _Sakura_ , but she didn't need to. That little stunt just strengthened his suspicions even more, in fact, it told him even more than if Kyoko was simply allowed to give her real last name. It told him that of all these girls, this Leiko character was the only one who knew who he was. Since it was her computer, she also was likely the one who hacked into their systems to change Kyoko's name to _'Misato'_. "So, it's Kyoko Subaru is it?" Ishida said casually, as he wrote it down. "And you Miss? _Leiko…_ "

"Leiko Ayayami." Leiko said, glancing over to him and readjusting her glasses which had nearly fallen off her face in the fall. Any trace of that apparently clumsy girl from a moment ago had vanished. Of course, he already knew that whole thing was just an act.

"Alright, that about does it then." Ishida said, returning the pen to the spiral at the top of the notebook. "Enjoy the rest of your day, ladies." He then turned and walked out of the apartment.

He glanced back to confirm the apartment door had been shut, then went right for his cellphone and dialed Kaiji's number. After a few moments of ringing he caught the voicemail. _'You've reached Dr. Kaiji Tashikowara. Sorry I can't answer the phone at the moment, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.'_

Ishida canceled the call, then phoned Kaiji's wife, his sister in law, instead.

After a moment of ringing. "Hello Ishida." She said.

"Hey Aoi. I'm trying to get in contact with Kaiji, did he leave for work already?"

"Oh, actually, I got a text message from him this morning. He stayed at the lab overnight, and apparently won't be making it back today." She laughed, "You know how it is with him sometimes. That man is a real workaholic."

Ishida grunted a less enthused laugh. "Heh, yeah tell me about it… Well, can you give me his work number?"

"Well… I have a number I can call in case of an emergency, but as you know it's pretty hard to get ahold of him while he is at work…" She trailed off for a moment then asked, "Is everything alright, Ishida? You sound a little tense."

"Oh, yes. Yes. Everything's fine… And don't worry about that emergency number, I've already got it. Well, I'll just leave him a message on his cell anyway. He can just call me back whenever he gets it."

"Oh, well alright then." She said, "As long as everything's alright."

"Yeah, it's all good. Well, I'm a little busy myself at the moment…"

"Oh alright, see you later then, Ishida."

"Yup, see you later." He said, and then they both hung up.

Ishida called Kaiji's number again, once again he got the voicemail, but this time he left a message. "Kaiji, call me back when you get this." He paused, thought for a moment, then added, "It's about that thing you asked me to do a little while ago… Anyway, just make sure you call me back. See you."

He returned his phone to his pocket, and glanced back to the apartment door once more.

 _What now?_ He thought.

He got the impression Kaiji was investigating this Kyoko Sakura in secrecy, and if that were the case it really limited his own options. He could bring Kyoko Sakura into the station if he wanted to, because if she was indeed Kyoko Sakura then that means she is a missing person, and he would have every right to bring her into custody. However, he didn't know what this girl meant to Kaiji yet, so he wanted to talk with him before making any moves.

Was she really the daughter of the mad preacher? If so, what was she doing here, and what exact interest did Kaiji have in her? He didn't know, but he knew he couldn't lose track of her.

He walked down the outdoor stairwell to the bottom of the complex, and got back to his squad car. He got into the driver seat and picked up his radio. "Unit 242, Ishida Tashikowara. I'm following a possible lead on gang activity and performing a stake out. Over."

' _Ten-Four Tashikowara, will you need back up? Over.'_

"Negative, just going to be keeping an eye on something for the next few hours. Over."

Then he clipped the radio to it's holder, and started driving around the block. He lied about what exactly he was staking out, just to keep things simple, but that would keep him from being dispatched on anything else for the next few hours.

He found a spot to park where he could keep an eye on the apartment complex. Mami Tomoe's apartment was up on the fifth floor, but he could still see the top half of her doorway from where he was parked. Like this, he would be able to keep track of Kyoko if she went anywhere, and hopefully Kaiji would get back to him soon.

* * *

Kaiji listened closely. At least two of his captors were talking to each other, but despite the echo in the room, their voices were still too low for him to pick up every word. Footsteps echoed too… he was in a large room, maybe a warehouse.

They had him sit on a chair, and his hands were cuffed to it's back. They let him spit the gag out a while ago, but left the black bag over his head, and refused to answer any of his questions, or explain themselves.

His head felt fuzzy. That was natural considering he had now been awake for well over twentyfour hours without sleep, and he hadn't been sleeping well over the last few days in the first place. Worse than that, his throat was completely parched, and the black bag over his head made it a little hard to breath.

"Hey!" He called out. He didn't know how many people were around him, but the two people talking ignored him. One of the voices was female… he was sure of that at least.

Who were they? Yakuza is one possibility that entered his mind, this _is_ how they tended to operate after all. A while ago he helped his brother out by altering some evidence that allowed him to arrest a known gang member. If the Yakuza figured out it was Kaiji who altered that evidence, then it would be perfectly in their nature to try something like this.

However, Kaiji rather doubted that possibility for the simple fact they abducted him in sight of several military vehicles. The Yakuza tended to get spooked pretty easily, and would opt for a better time to make their move.

So… who was left?

The girls that he spoke to before… Homura's friends. Kyoko Sakura was one of them, then there was Leiko, Madoka Kaname, and the mysterious and threatening voice of _'Saki'._ Since his video tape of Kyoko Sakura was missing, they were very likely suspects. He knew nearly nothing about them, but suppose it's possible they were part of an organization. The people who abducted him were regular adult men.

There was a third possibility. Endou. Endou seemed pretty anxious for Kaiji to go home, but when Kaiji denied this order, and said he would just go out to his car, Endou seemed to have completely dropped his complaints. Perhaps all Endou _really_ wanted was for Kaiji to leave the lab so that these people could grab him? Kaiji had been at odds with Endou lately, but he didn't think Endou would take things this far… he wasn't even sure if Endou had the power to arrange something like this.

"Hey!" Kaiji shouted again, "If you are not going to tell me anything, can I at least have a glass of water?"

The voices paused. Then went right back to talking, completely ignoring him.

"God damn it!" Kaiji screamed, "Would someone answer me already!"

He heard a sigh, and then footsteps. _"Hey you, go fetch a litre of water."_

Alright, definitely not Yakuza, otherwise they wouldn't care if he just died of dehydration.

The footsteps got closer, until he could feel a presence upon him. Then, the bag lifted off of his head, and he was instantly blinded by a bright light. His eyes squinted, and turned away from the spotlight that was focused on him.

He looked around as best as he could. High ceilings, cement floors, boarded up windows. He was in an old abandoned warehouse. On the other side of the warehouse, by a large steel door, there stood two large men in black suits. About ten meters away from where Kaiji sat, he saw a woman sitting at a computer terminal with her back turned in his direction. He squinted to try and see the screen.

"Hey, eyes over here." Said the man who had removed the bag from his head. He sat on the opposite side of the metal table that was in front of Kaiji, then pushed the spotlight to the side so it was no longer directly in Kaiji's eyes.

Kaiji stared at him, his face covered in sweat, and his eyes heavy. The man across from him had jet black hair, small narrow eyes, darkly tanned skin, and wearing a black suit. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties. There was an old TV set on a stand behind him.

He smiled as he reached under his jacket, and removed a pack of cigarettes. "Smoke?" He asked.

"No…" Kaiji answered in a rough voice. His throat was quite dry, so a cigarette would be the last thing he would want right now, even if he _was_ a smoker.

The man shrugged, lit his cigarette, then blew a puff of smoke into Kaiji's face, causing him to start on a minor coughing fit.

"Soooo…" The man started, leaning over the table and resting his hands under his chin. Two fingers extended to hold out the cigarette. "Why are you here?"

Kaiji scoffed, and shook his head. "That's what I would like to know."

The man frowned, "Surely you have at least some idea?"

"Why don't we just skip the games, and you tell me what you want?" Kaiji said.

"Hm, that's no fun." The man sighed, and leaned back in his chair. One hand raised to his mouth so he could take another drag of his cigarette, his other hand tapped his fingernails against the metal table. "Alright, let's make it a game then. You have until I finish this cigarette to tell me why you are here, or the bag goes back on your head and we can try again in a couple of hours. How does that sound?"

"That sounds like a shit deal." Kaiji said, dryly.

"Yeah, that's the breaks when you're holding a shit hand." The man grinned, "Right now no one knows where you are, and we hold all the cards. So how about a little cooperation? Trust me, whatever we want, we are going to get out of you one way or another. Our methods of doing so become increasingly unbeneficial to your health the longer you hold out, so I'd recommend not forcing _our_ hands."

Kaiji sighed. "So you want me to _guess_ why I'm here." The man nodded. "Alright… Well if I'm playing a _game_ with you, can I at least know your name?"

"You can call me Takashi. It's an alias, but it'll work for now."

Kaiji thought he understood the point of this. The truth is, there was a lot that they didn't know, but they at least knew some things. He wanted Kaiji to 'guess' why he was here, and hopefully accidentally give away something that they don't already know. He supposed, that from his side his goal should be to give away as little as possible. Well, not that there was actually much to give away in the first place. He wondered, what exactly did they want from him?

"Alright… Takashi… Can I assume you are the one's who took the videotape from my car?"

Takashi nodded.

"So, I can assume that the contents of the video led to you wanting to abduct me?" Another nod. "So then…" Either they were with Kyoko/Kay Sakura, or they were not. Either way, it was clear what this was about. "This has to do with Kay Sakura, doesn't it?"

"See? That wasn't so hard. Now, how much do you know about Kay Sakura?" Takashi asked.

Kaiji shook his head. "I know that she is a psychologist… or at the very least she is claiming to be one."

"So, I take it you suspect she is not all she appears to be?"

"It's a possibility."

Takashi's already small eyes narrowed even further. "Then why did you let her leave the lab?" Kaiji was quiet, not sure how to answer. "You realize something like that could be considered treason? I'm sure at the very least you would lose your job, if you don't in fact end up in jail. Either way, say goodbye to your nice lifestyle, and your beautiful house… Oh, it was a really nice place, by the way."

Kaiji suddenly felt his heart race at the mention of his house. "Is that a threat?" He said, scowling at the man who sat across from him.

"Just stating…"

"Takashi." Said the woman on the other side of the room as she got up and started walking over to him.

"Errr…. _Facts…_ " He shot her an annoyed expression. "You're really interrupting my flow here, Aida."

Aida clearly wasn't Japanese, she had soft blue eyes, blonde hair, and her skin was white, but her cheeks had a bit of rosiness to them.

She walked over to the TV set, and adjusted its position a bit so Kaiji could see it. Then she kneeled down and grabbed a folder from underneath it, and dropped it on the table. "This folder was retrieved from your residence. In the night." She spoke with a deep, rough accent, but pronounced the words cleanly, though the pace at which she spoke them was not as fluid as a native Japanese speaker. Was she Russian? Maybe German.

When she saw Kaiji's eyes widened as he looked over the folder, she added; "Don't worry, our team was quick, and your family never knew we were there. Despite what threats Takashi plans to make, the truth is we have no intention of harming your family."

"That's not necessarily true!" Takashi added, pointing at Kaiji with his eyebrows curved down into a serious expression. "But if you work with us, you won't have to worry about that one way or the other, got it?"

Kaiji shook his head, "What is this? Are you guys trying to play good cop, bad cop here?"

Aida shrugged, "More like idiot cop, practical cop."

Takashi sighed with annoyance, leaned his head on one hand and rolled his eyes. "Either way, we definitely are _not_ cops."

"Let's just get to the bottom of this already." Aida then turned around, and started pressing buttons on the VCR stationed under the TV set. Kaiji looked at the folder more closely; indeed it was the files he asked Ishida to bring to him, from the Sakura Cult case. When the TV turned on, he saw the security footage from the produce store. Kyoko Sakura was just walking through the front door when it started.

The tape was on fast forward as Kyoko walked up the isles, sneaking a couple snacks into her pockets, and then slowed to a normal pace when the clerk confronted her. She pushed past him, knocked over a shelf, then turned to shout something.

Aida paused the video with Kyoko's face clearly visible to the camera. Aida then took a phone out of her pocket and swiped her fingers across it for a moment. She pulled up a picture of Kay Sakura and held it right next to Kyoko on the TV screen. "Striking resemblance, wouldn't you say?"

"I thought so." Kaiji agreed. It looked like the picture of Kay had been taken from the lab security footage. How could they possibly have gotten their hands on it, though? Not even official lab members like himself were allowed to re-record anything like that.

"So, who is she?" Takashi asked.

"Which one?" Kaiji decided he would continue testing the waters, and figure out what they know without giving them any new information. For now at least. "Well, I suspect the girl is Kyoko Sakura, daughter of Father Sakura, the mad preacher of Kazamino. I'm not sure of her relation to Kay, but as you said the resemblance is indeed striking." Of course, he actually did know that they were the same person, and somehow Kyoko could change her appearance.

"It's more than that." Aida said, returning her phone to her pocket. "I have a contact who is expert in facial analysis. I sent the two images to him, and you want to know what he tells me? He said that this video must be fifteen years older than the picture of Kay I sent him, and they are indeed the same person. When I told him images were from mere months apart, he doesn't believe me. He said that even if they were mother and daughter, that could not account for how similar they are. You see, if the analysis is thorough, a person's facial structure is almost as unique as a fingerprint. It's impossible for two people to be exactly the same, with the only exception being identical twins."

"Clearly they are not the same person, though." Kaiji said, "Nor could they be twins considering Kay is nearly twice the other girls age."

"I know…" Aida said, "So that's when our theories got a little more creative. One theory that I came up with is that this teenage girl could have been cloned from Kay, which would essentially make them identical twins but also account for the age gap. However, as far as I or anyone else is officially aware, there has never been successful human cloning. Still, it was the only explanation that made sense."

"You don't seem to believe that though, do you?" Kaiji asked.

Takashi cleared his throat. "Just a heads up, this whole kidnapping situation is going to become much more comfortable for you if you are able to help us out. So… if you _are_ able to shed light on this little mystery of ours…"

"I honestly don't know what you want from me." Kaiji said.

"Simple. Tell us Kyoko Sakura's relation to Kay Sakura." Takashi said.

"I told you I don't know."

"Then at least tell us why you let her leave the lab, after clearly having suspicions about her." Takashi took another drag of his smoke, but at least had the decency to blow it to the side this time, instead of directly into Kaiji's face.

How could he answer? She used some kind of hypnosis on him, but in all honesty he didn't think that really mattered. It didn't seem to hold it's effect for long, and even before that, he had been on the fence about his allegiances ever since discovering Homura's cat drawing at Madoka's house and verifying Kay as a double agent. "I…" He thought a moment before answering. "I don't know who you people are, or how you know anything about something that happened in the lab in the first place, but can I assume you know what we are studying there?"

"Homura Akemi." Aida answered, "Otherwise known as Test Subject One."

"Can I ask another question, and can I trust that you will answer honestly?"

"Shoot." Takashi said, "Can't guarantee the honesty part if it's the wrong kind of question, though."

"Fair enough… Is your organisation with the government? I mean, is anything I say here going to end up biting me and causing me legal problems?"

"No." Aida said, "This is not that kind of interrogation. We are not investigating you, we are investigating Homura Akemi, and Kay and Kyoko Sakura."

"Yeah," Takashi agreed, "We could really give a damn about what does or doesn't happen to you." He laughed, "And we are definitely _not_ with the government either."

"Alright then. The reason I let Kay go, is because I thought she might be able to help Homura. It's as simple as that. As far as who Kay _really_ is… I'm afraid I don't have any answers for you there."

Takashi glanced over to Aida, and they seemed to be conferring a thought. "I'll believe the part about you wanting to help Homura. I still think you know something about Kay that you don't want to spill." Takashi said. "Anyway, we don't get all the juicy details about what goes on in that lab, but we get enough to know that Dr. Endou is pretty twisted. It's inconsequential to us, though. We don't really care what does or doesn't happen to Homura either. All we really care about is what she can do."

"And." Aida added, "What Kay Sakura here can do. Or should I just be calling her _Kyoko_?" She shot Kaiji a look, then smiled when Kaiji's face gave away what he had been hiding. "So it's true then?"

"I don't…"

Takashi leaned forward. "Remember what I said about us getting what we want out of you one way or another? Something you should understand about me, although I just called Dr. Endou twisted, I say it with a level of admiration. You see, I'm pretty twisted myself. Next time we ask you something, answer honestly, and you won't need to meet that twisted side. Alright?"

"You think that Kay and Kyoko are the same person?" Kaiji said with a laugh, "Clearly that is impossible."

Takashi rubbed his temples and sighed. "I swear, this guy just doesn't seem to get his situation at all. Does he?"

Aida smiled, "Dr. Kaiji. That was a rather surprised look you got from my simply suggesting they are the same person. Please don't lie to us anymore."

"Isn't it natural to be surprised? What you just _suggested_ didn't make any sense."

"Yet they have identical facial structures, and furthermore, we happen to know for a fact that at least one of the two of them is fake."

"Fake meaning a forged identity." Takashi said, "Wanna take a guess which of the two it is?"

"Well… I suppose Kay would be the obvious answer, since she is the one who would benefit from a fake identity." Kaiji said, "But if you are suggesting Kyoko was able to change her appearance that significantly… You do realize that's impossible, right?"

"Not necessarily." Aida said, then her eyes sharpened and a grin came over her face. "That is, if we are assuming Kyoko Sakura is a _Puella Magi_."

* * *

Homura walked through the park, her hair caught on the wind. So far, everything was going according to plan. There was a small hiccup at school where Sayaka had publicly told her to stay away from Madoka, which caused her and Madoka some mild embarrassment and surely sparked rumors, but in the grand scheme of things it was an inconsequential event, one that could be dealt with _after_ Walpurgis Night.

She heard a scuffling noise behind her, and didn't have to turn around to know who it was. "You did well, Mami Tomoe."

"Thank you for sending me that text, Homura, although I do wonder why you didn't try to separate them yourself?"

Homura turned to face her. "I'm sure you have heard Sayaka's complaints about me. Everything I do, that girl manages to twist into some kind of devious plan. If I revealed that I had been following them, I never would have heard the end of it."

"Well, You never did explain why you _were_ following them in the first place."

"Sayaka should not be taking Madoka along with her, especially while she is still so inexperienced herself. Call me overprotective if you want, but I was concerned about Madoka's safety. Anyway, when this… _Kyouko..._ showed up, I called you right away." Homura spoke Kyoko's name as if it were unfamiliar to her, and she was unsure of how to pronounce it.

In reality, Homura had a secret alliance with Kyoko (at least as far as Kyoko knew) and she was in fact the one who sent Kyoko to the alley to confront Sayaka in the first place. Then, she also sent Mami to their location to break them up.

"Well, whatever the case, I'm glad you did." Mami smiled, "It's just lucky I happened to be nearby."

"Indeed it was." Homura said, thinking back on how she snuck into Mami's apartment while time was stopped earlier that day, to steal her sugar. Doing that made Mami go out to the store, and brought her close enough to Sayaka and Kyoko that she would be able to get there and stop the confrontation before things went too far. Homura even texted her _before_ Kyoko actually revealed herself, but there is no way Mami would notice this discrepancy in the timing. "I'm glad you got there so fast, otherwise I may have had to step in. Luckily, I managed to get away with just observing, but I want you to know I wouldn't have let Sayaka get hurt."

"Hm. So what did you _observe_ before I intervened?"

Homura spoke bluntly. "You're too soft on her. Miki's technique is sloppy, she doesn't block when she should, and wastes far too much magic on healing."

"She's still new at this, she needs time. She certainly wasn't ready for a confrontation with someone like Kyoko."

Homura nodded. "Well if you care about Sayaka's safety I'd recommend you either step up her training, or teach her not to be so reckless. She wasted far too much magic to take down a simple familiar, before Kyoko even showed up. You know my feelings on going after familiars in the first place… The purpose is honorable, but it can put far too much strain on a Magical Girl's SoulGem to constantly go into battle and obtain no rewards. Especially for Sayaka who seems to think her magic is endless."

Although Mami considered Homura an ally, and could take _some_ of her bluntness, she wasn't always entirely accepting of her harsh words, and this was clear on her face at that moment. "Well, someone has to look out for others. If all Magical Girls thought the way _you_ did, I worry what condition this city might be in." She folded her arms in a posture that showed she would not be moved on this issue.

Silence filled the conversation. Far away, Homura could see some teenagers slinking through the shadowy depths created by the trees, off about to do something that may ruin their future. At least in this timeline, the witch that was suppose to ambush them was already in Homura's pocket, dormant and unable to hurt a soul.

Finally, Homura spoke, but decided to move away from the direction the conversation was heading in. "Before the exchange got violent, Kyoko Sakura tried to convince Miki to join her against you. Therefore, this encounter was planned, rather than chance."

"I see…" Mami looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn't figure out the right words.

Homura sighed. "I could see from the way Kyoko spoke that you two have a shared history. Is any of it relevant?"

Mami paused for a second, surprised, then shook her head. "We were a team once, but we parted ways a long time go. Things… ended badly between us."

"So possible revenge, or just a plain takeover." Homura said. "I'll tail her a bit, see what she's up to. Maybe I'll be able to discern her motivation."

Silence went between them again. This time it was Mami who broke it. "You… don't want to know why me and Kyoko parted? Or the nature of our partnership?"

"That's your business. I frankly don't care about what happened in the past. Right now, my only concern is the present and the future." Homura didn't add that she already knew the whole story, how it was the death of Kyoko's family and a conflict of ideals that led to the violent end of their relationship.

"Anyway." Homura said. "I have things to do, so if you'll excuse me." She began to walk away.

"Homura?" Mami said. Homura stopped. "Sayaka is wrong about you. I don't know what Madoka did to gain your friendship, but it's clear to me that she is very important to you, and you would do anything to protect her. Even prevent her from making a contract."

Homura didn't turn to face her. "This life is a living nightmare, Mami Tomoe, despite what your experiences may be. No matter what, I will shield her from this fate, at any cost."

"Well, I can't argue with that kind of dedication." Mami said, probably smiling again. "As much as I'd like to have two new Kohais, I guess I'll have to concede defeat on that front."

Homura didn't respond, not until she froze time. Then she moved across the city towards Kyoko's location.

It took her bit of time to locate Kyoko. She finally pinpointed her _ally_ eating an apple, perched on top of a crane in the industrial district, her cheek puffed up in mid-chew. Homura cleared her throat, and unfroze time.

"I got another apple for you." Kyoko quickly said, before Homura could speak first. "Want it?"

"No thank you." Homura replied, with one of her half-smiles.

Kyoko stood up, her hair and clothes blowing in the wind as she stood atop the crane, with the city walls and setting sun laid out on the horizon before her. Her left hand held a half eaten apple, and her right hand reached through the chest of her hoodie to produce another unscathed apple. She held it up, staring at it with an unreadable expression, before suddenly turning and throwing at Homura with a considerable level of force.

Homura raised one hand and caught the apple in front of her face. Her palm stung, and one foot was forced to step back. She looked back to Kyoko with a questioning eyebrow.

"Seriously!" Kyoko said, her eyes intense, and her fang protruding past an angry grimace. "Take it! And you better not waste it either!"

Homura raised a questioning eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

Kyoko's knees bent down, then she jumped up from her place atop the crane. She glided back down, and landed softly in front of Homura. "So what's your deal anyway? Are you actually serious about all of this, or are you just pulling my leg?"

"I don't follow." Homura said, not flinching at all despite Kyoko puffing up her chest and giving a mean stare.

"You could have helped me, y'know. Together we could have taken them!"

"And we could have just as easily been beaten." The wind blew against Homura's silky hair, while her eye's remained cool. "I don't join fights that I can't be sure I'll win, and a 2v2 battle contains too many variables to predict the outcome." Homura's phone buzzed inside her pocket. She pulled it out and flipped it open. She smiled at the screen, then seeming to have forgotten Kyoko's presence, started typing out a message with her thumbs. Kyoko's eyes narrowed, and she took a hard bite out of her apple, clearly irritated about Homura messing with her phone at a time like this.

After a moment, Homura finished her message and continued. "Besides, Mami still thinks I'm on her side. Since we no longer have surprise on our side, my betrayal is our sole trump card."

"I _guess_ that makes sense…" Kyoko became even more agitated when Homura's phone buzzed again, and she once again flipped it open and started typing out another message. Kyoko gritted her teeth. "It's still _weird_ Mami showed up like that, ya' know? I was just about to finish that rookie off before she _Tiro Finale_ 'd my barrier down."

"She must have been keeping near her new trainee to keep an eye on her. That familiar fleeing and Sayaka not following probably tipped her off that something was amiss."

"Hm… guess I should have just left it in that cage the newbie made..." Kyoko took one last bite from her apple and tossed the core over the buildings edge.

"I do have some good news for you." Homura said, her phone buzzing again, and again smiling as she took it out and started with her reply. "In two days, just after sunset, Sayaka Miki will be outside the Kamijo household in the residential district, about half a kilometre from the river, alone. The boy inside the house is the one Miki wished to heal."

"I getcha." Kyoko said, a sardonic smile on her face. "I assume I can goad that rookie into a fight she isn't prepared for just by threatening the boy, huh?"

"That is correct."

"Perfect." Kyoko gave Homura a look. "So, how'd you know that?"

"That's my business." Homura replied, looking down at her phone once again, and preparing to start another message.

Suddenly, Kyoko flung out her arm and snatched the phone from her grip. "Hey!"

"What's so special about this thing, anyway?" Kyoko said, holding it with two fingers. Then she read the screen, and her playful smile became serious, then a smirk. "So that's what's going on. Taking things to the next level, huh?"

Homura froze time, grabbed the phone from Kyoko's hands, and moved back to her earlier position before twisting the shield back and resuming time. Kyoko blinked as she stared at her empty hand, then shook her head.

"It's nothing that serious." Homura replied, returning the phone to her pocket.

"Come on, spill, what's ya' strategy? Rush in, hit em hard, leave them _reeling_?" Kyoko burst out laughing as Homura rolled her eyes.

"I assure you, this isn't as hard as you think." _'I've done it more times than you'd know'_ Homura thought to herself.

"Well, anyway." Kyoko said. "You've got to get to the otherside of town. Better leave now before you miss your window of opportunity."

Homura nodded. "Remember, stick to the plan."

"Gotcha. Oh, and good luck, _ally._ " Kyoko gave a little mock salute, grinning widely.

"Same to you." Homura froze time, and began the long climb down the ladder.

It took her only a fraction of the remaining time to get to her destination. She took a quick look around to make sure no one would see her randomly appear out of thin air, then resumed time. Once at the top of the street, she could see Madoka sitting on the front steps waiting for her.

Madoka's head lifted up when she saw Homura coming towards her, then she waved her hand high in the air and got up. They met with each other at the foot of the driveway, and Madoka wrapped her arms around Homura as soon as she could. Homura smiled and returned the hug, "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"Um… I'm sorry I haven't been spending too much time with you the last few days. I was just trying to respect Sayaka's feelings too… but…" Madoka separated herself enough to look up at her and smile. "You're my girlfriend, so that's not right… and... I decided I shouldn't let Sayaka's disapproval come between us."

Homura returned the smile. "I'm sure Miki has good intentions. It's a shame we don't seem to get along, but I'm sure we'll be able to find common ground soon. And of course I don't blame you, she's a good friend of yours after all. I wouldn't want to come between that either."

Madoka nodded, "Thanks for being so understanding… um…" She glanced over to her front door. "So, ready for this?"

"Of course."

"Sure you're not nervous?"

Homura shrugged, "Maybe a little, but also excited."

Madoka giggled, she loved the way Homura could state her emotions so plainly without actually showing any of them. Something about it was just really sweet. She wished it was easier for Sayaka to see these good sides of Homura too, then maybe they could get along better.

They walked hand in hand, and Madoka led her into the house. As soon as they walked through the door they were greeted by a garlicky smell coming from the kitchen, and the sizzling of a frying pan.

"Mom, dad, I'm home!"

"Welcome back!" Her father called back from the kitchen.

"Um… can you both come into the livingroom? There's someone I want you to meet."

Her father was the first to come out of the kitchen, and then her mother poked her head out of another door on the other side of the living room.

"Oh, hello." Her father said, giving the girl a smile.

Junko came out and went over to stand by her husband. "Hello, is this a friend from school?" She seemed to notice them standing hand in hand, but apparently didn't fully register what that meant right away.

"Not exactly… um, her name is Homura and…" Madoka pulled closer to Homura and let a bright expression come over her face. "She's my girlfriend!"

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Homura bowed, deciding to pretend not to notice their surprised reactions, instead gripping the hand of the one she loved tighter.

They clearly didn't know how to respond at first, and there was a bit of an awkward silence. This didn't last long, though, and soon Junko was the one to break it when she came across the room. "Madoka! I had no idea you were seeing anyone!" She ended up putting her hands on Homura's shoulder and almost acted as if she were examining an item at a store, Homura's stoic face suddenly turned bright red. "So cute too!" Junko said with a wink.

Madoka could only laugh.

"So Homura, I was just about finished with dinner. Are you going to be staying for a little while?" Her father asked.

"Um… yes, thank you." Homura said with a smile, then when she looked over to Madoka and saw her cheery expression, Homura herself just felt incredibly happy. For the first time in a long time, she felt as though things were finally going to work out in the end.

* * *

"Look at you, disguising yourself as a normal person." The witch laughed as the clouds overhead moved together, and cast a gloomy shadow over the red field once again. Homura blinked, watching the distant hills of spider lilies ripple under a slight breeze.

For a while, it felt as though she had gone somewhere else, to a much happier reality, but then this reality came back around, and she was once again sitting next to the hateful creature that wore her face.

The witch sat atop a chair, Homura was on the ground amongst the flowers. It's head turned, and looked down at her, and it's wooden jaw opened slightly to create that odd grinning effect on it's otherwise emotionless face. "Do you think they would be so accepting of you if they knew what you really were? And of the kinds of things you've done?"

Homura closed her eyes, and tried to stop herself from looking down at her missing arm, or paying too much attention the witches words. She wanted to sink away from this reality again, and retreat back to one of her happier memories. Perhaps that's why the witch had pulled her away, because it only wanted her to think about despair.

"I have made some hard choices, sometimes hurting the people who are closest to me… but it was always for her. I have gotten to know Junko very well, and I think she would always understand my loyalty for Madoka."

"Loyalty? Is that what you call it?" The witch started making that cackling sound with the squeaky hinges of it's jaw. Homura kept her eyes closed, and refused to look at it. "The truth is you want Madoka all for yourself. I'm afraid I can't completely comprehend something like love in it's entirety, but there is one aspect of it I know quite well, and that's the desire that comes along with it. Having Madoka is something of a personal gain, and that is the truth behind your _hard choices_."

"I said it before, a creature like you could never understand. You are twisting my feelings, and the things you say hold no truth."

More cackling, "A creature like _me_? But I am _you_ , Homura. As for the truth, do you deny that you have any desire to keep Madoka close to you?"

"You're twisting it!" Homura said, finally opening her eyes again. "Of course you would want to be close to someone you care about."

The Clara dolls finished their march across the red plains, and were now at the foot of the hill Homura and the witch sat upon. Homura's hand tightened on her shoulder as she stared down at the dolls.

"Whatever the case…" The witch spoke in it's slow hypnotic voice. "The time has just about arrived, hasn't it?"

All fourteen of the dolls had a crooked smile upon their painted faces. Their clothing had a victorian style, mostly black, but with some variations of darkly hued colors. Whenever she would make eye contact with one, it would cringe with disgust, as if it thought she were some disgusting thing to look at.

They carried a large oaken coffin, dark brown wood, and the image of a spider lily was burned into its lid, along with some runic lettering in a language she did not understand, but has seen inside labyrinths many times before.

Through her peripheral vision, Homura could see the witch's head turn, and she could feel it's eyes and twisted face staring at her. _"Are you ready to be born?"_

* * *

 **Thanks to everyone for reading!**

 **An even bigger thanks going out to Axius27, because I honestly don't do it enough, for his awesome work beta reading for me. He also partially ghost wrote a couple parts in this chapter (because he got bored of waiting for me to keep going), so deserves some credit for that as well (although I guess technically giving credit doesn't make it ghostwriting anymore… *shrug*)(also he threatened a lawsuit)**

 **He is also working on yet another TSO spinoff, based on a bit of a silly premise but it's coming out quite good so far. Hopefully it will be finished and we will see it soon, and hopefully my mentioning it here will pressure him into doing so :P You can also check out his other stories posted through his profile, including the previous spinoff TSO: Ransom. And, if you want, you can harass him on his twitter Axius27**

 **Thanks again for reading!**

 **-Atomyst**


	23. Chapter 23

**For your convenience and improved reading experience, I have included this handy link detailing the** _ **children of fake town**_ **, which I used as a reference while writing this chapter. (It would be really nice if FFN allowed hyperlinks. replace the '(d-o-t)' with a '.')**

 **Imgur (d-o-t) com/a/mM0Lk**

* * *

Kyoko perched herself on the bridges railing, snacking on pocky as she waited. The sky was particularly bright with starlight for a city night. The moon was out and it's crescent shape reflected off the river behind her.

She saw a _self-righteous figure_ marching up the bridge, the girl's head was down enough that her eyes were hidden under her short blue hair, but below that she wore a face cold as stone.

"So, you didn't chicken out after all." Kyoko laughed as Sayaka approached. She jumped down from the railing and stuffed the pocky box back into her hoodie while one stick remained hanging from her lips.

"As if I would." Sayaka said. She pushed her hands forward as if she were grabbing at something, and with a flash of light her clothes tore away from her body and blue ribbons began forming her Magical Girl uniform. Her hands wrapped around the hilt of a freshly formed sword, and she took her stance. "My duty is to protect this city, and if that means taking down selfish Magical Girls like you, then there's no way I'm backing down."

Kyoko sighed as her own Magical Girl uniform started forming around her body. "You really got some messed up priorities, chick. Guess I'll just have to show you what your so called justice really amounts to!" Her transformation complete, and her spear formed in her hand just in time to block Sayaka's first attack. Kyoko just grinned and fended off the blow, then stepped around to try and give herself some distance. "Did you already forget what happened last time?" She teased, "Don't count on your precious senpai jumping in and saving the day again!"

"I wasn't ready last time!" Sayaka shouted, and she spun around and started bombarding Kyoko with attack after attack, "This time I won't lose!"

Then a third voice called from far away, "WAIT! STOP!" They both stopped with their weapons locked together and looked down the bridge in the direction Sayaka had come from.

"Are you kidding me?" Kyoko said under her breath, as she stuffed Sayaka's blade away and jumped back to open some distance between them. "Should have figured you'd be too chicken to _actually_ come here alone."

Sayaka didn't say anything and just watched as Mami and Madoka ran up the bridge together. "You don't have to be here." Sayaka said to Mami, as she turned and raised her sword to Kyoko once again. "I said I could handle this myself."

Mami ignored Sayaka's words and went to stand in between them while she addressed Kyoko. "You have your own territory, why do you insist in barging in on ours?"

Kyoko clicked her teeth as she raised her spear to rest it up over her shoulder. "There is no way I can just stand by while the two of you ruin this prime piece of territory." Her eye's narrowed. "I'm the one who should have right's to this town, and that's why I'm going to take it over."

Sayaka stepped forward. "If it were up to you, you'd just let innocent people die so you can collect more GriefSeeds!"

Mami put her hand up to signal Sayaka back. "If you insist on fighting, then I suppose we have no choice. However, you do seem outnumbered at the moment so I would suggest you reconsider your options."

Kyoko grinned, showing off her fang. "Well you aren't wrong about that." Her free hand raised and she snapped, summoning a barrier between herself and the three other girls, then she set her sights on Sayaka. "We'll have to try this again some other time, rookie."

Sayaka scoffed and her hands tightened around the hilt of her sword as Kyoko started walking away. "Mami, just back off and let me take her one on one. Seriously!"

Then, Kyoko stopped walking. There was a whooshing sound that caused all their heads to turn back to her. Kyoko laughed as the fourth Magical Girl appeared in front of her.

Homura brushed her hair to the side, and looked at Kyoko through the corner of her eye. "Kyoko, how about staying a while longer?"

Kyoko's fang poked out again, "Finally dropping the act, huh?" She spun around, and poised her spear back into her battle stance. She now stood side by side with Homura and faced the other girls. "It's about time!"

"H-Homura?" Madoka asked, taking a slight step back. "What's going on?"

The red chain-link barrier dispelled, opening up the battle ground, and everyone on the field other than Homura and Madoka sunk into battle positions. Mami summoned a musket into her hands and focused her sight down the barrel. "Homura? Is this really as it seems? Are you betraying us?"

"I knew it!" Sayaka shouted, "I knew you couldn't be trusted! I never imagined you would actually sink _this_ low though!"

"Ha! That's right!" Kyoko said with a mocking tone. " _Smiles_ over here has been plotting against the two of you this whole time! Ever wonder how I had such an easy time finding the rookie? We planned on just taking her out first, but that hasn't really worked out. So looks like we are just stepping our game up now."

"You're saying Homura directed you towards Sayaka?" Mami asked. Sayaka gritted her teeth, her muscles were tense and she was ready to lash out.

Kyoko grinned, "That's right. We've been setting you up this whole time!"

"I see." Mami said, with a dry voice. "Then I think it would be wise to take a closer look at your so called ally… Kyoko." Kyoko raised a questioning eyebrow. "How do you think it is _I_ always managed to show up as well?"

Kyoko's eye's widened as the answer dawned on her. She quickly spun away from Homura, and jumped back a few steps, then seemed unsure of who to point her spear at as she aimed it's tip back and forth from Homura to Mami and Sayaka. "What the hell! You were tryna' set ME up this whole time!?" She said, finally deciding to focus her spear on Homura. "Wait… Just what side are you on here anyway!"

"I think the answer is obvious now." Mami said. "She likely wanted the three of us to engage with each other, so she could come finish off the last one standing, and then have the territory all to herself." Mami steadied her aim on Homura. "Isn't that right? Akemi?"

"N-no!" Madoka shouted, "Homura wouldn't do something like that! Th-this is a misunderstanding! It has to be!" She looked over to Homura who now had all three of the other girls training their weapons on her "Tell them Homura!"

Homura brushed her hair to the side, and spoke in her calm controlled way. "I'll admit that I have indeed been playing both sides of the fence this whole time."

Madoka gasped and her mouth dropped open. Sayaka stepped forward. "You're really going to pay for that!" She shouted, "Messing with us to try and take our territory is one thing! But misrepresenting yourself to Madoka is something I'll never forgive you for!"

"However!" Homura said, raising her voice and interrupting Sayaka's accusations. "The reasons that Mami stated are all false." She stepped forward, until she was perfectly in the center of all the other girls. A wind blew at her hair, and she brought a hand up to flip the stray locks back behind herself. "You can all lower your weapons. There is no need for any of us to fight amongst ourselves… Because the truth is, we all share a common enemy."

"Quit stalling!" Sayaka shouted, "There's no way you're just going to talk your way out of this one!"

"I'm with the rookie on that." Kyoko said, pointing her spear more carefully, and letting her eyes become dark. "You're going to pay for jerking me around."

Mami's steadiness with her musket faltered. She was the only one who seemed willing to give Homura the benefit of the doubt, other than Madoka of course, who still didn't quite know what to think, but the distress was clear on her face.

Mami's life had been saved by Homura before, and that simple fact spoke mountains against the idea that Homura's goal was to take all of them out, and it was enough to slow her down and let her listen. "Common enemy? What are you talking about?" She asked.

"It's someone we all know." Homura explained, as she looked from Kyoko, to Sayaka, then back to Mami. "His name is Kyubey."

The girls were silent for a long moment after the revelation, until Mami spoke up. "What are you saying? Are you really trying to stall with something like that?"

Homura just looked at her with a sympathetic frown, and without warning, her shield turned, and she stopped time.

Homura walked over to Madoka, and put a hand on her shoulder to bring her into her timeflow. Madoka flinched from Homura's sudden appearance, then looked around to confirm that time had stopped. Even though she has seen this plenty of times before, it still managed to have an effect on her.

Madoka looked up at Homura, and saw the concern in her eyes. "Homura? What's going on?" She asked.

Homura looked away, almost guiltily. "I didn't want to shock you too much, so I'm going to tell you first." Homura explained.

She could see Homura was troubled, and knew whatever this was about, it was difficult for her. Madoka grabbed onto her hand, and squeezed it tightly.

When they made eye contact again, they each managed to give each other a reassuring smile. Homura's smile faded after a moment, and in a dark voice she said, "I'm sorry, but something very cruel is about to happen."

* * *

"I don't care what you have to do. Either you get those numbers up by the end of the week, or don't bother coming in on monday!"

With that, Junko slammed her finger down on the receiver, ending the call. She sat back for a moment, and rubbed her temple, trying to massage away some of the frustration. Of all the problems brought to her desk, the ones coming from the accounting team always felt just so tedious. If they weren't so damn necessary, she wouldn't mind getting rid of every last one of them... especially _Old Baldy_.

She grinned at the thought, then rolled closer to her keyboard and opened up her email. Five messages awaited her. Briefly looking at the subject lines, most of them were just asking for confirmations on certain things. Another inquired about a proposal she was working on for the board meeting later that day. Her method was to deal with the simplest problems first, and get them out of her way so the more intricate issues of her work day could have her full attention.

She read over the first of these emails, then began typing out a response to confirm a sales margin, when her phone started ringing. Her finger glided over to the receiver and pushed a button, then returned to the keyboard, the action causing only the slightest delay in her typing speed.

"Mrs. Kaname, your husbands on line two." Came the voice of her secretary.

"Ok, thanks, send him through." Junko said, as she finished the email then began giving it a quick proof read.

The receiver beeped, then gave way to soft white noise, and Junko said, "Hey hon, whats up?"

"Hey, hows your day going so far?"

"Good. Eventful." She said, as she clicked send, then opened up the next email and started reading it.

"Well, there's something I figured you should know about." Tomohisa said.

"Does this have anything to do with a certain angsty teenager?" Junko asked.

"You guessed it." Tomohisa said with a sigh. "I went to wake Madoka up, only to find her bed was empty. She must have snuck out earlier in the morning… She isn't answering her phone either, I don't know what she could be doing."

Junko turned away from the computer; it was very rare for her to look away from something once she got started. "I think I have an idea of where she went." Junko said, "Last night she mentioned Homura coming back into town. I don't know why she would sneak out, though. Even though she's grounded, I'd think she'd know we wouldn't keep her from seeing Homura." Junko sighed, "Don't worry, I'll handle this."

"Alright, well have a good day."

"Yup, love you."

"Love you too." Tomohisa said, and Junko smiled as she pushed down on the receiver to end the call.

She punched in Madoka's number then listened to it ring until it eventually went to voicemail.

" _Hiii! This is Madoka! Sorry I'm not by my phone right now, but leave a message and I'll get right back to ya'!" ~beeeep_

"Hey sweetie," Junko said, deciding to start with the nice approach first. "Look, I don't know what's going on with you, but you can't just start ignoring us like this. Call me back before I start to worry, ok?" She ended the call then stopped and thought for a moment. That message should do the job of guilting Madoka into calling her back. If not, she would try again a little later, being more assertive next time, and if that still didn't work she supposed the gloves would have to come off.

She didn't like playing the strict parent, and preferred to leave it up to Madoka to make her own decisions for herself, while offering advice and guidance where she could. Especially now that Madoka was at that delicate formative age. Then again, considering how Madoka had been lately, maybe she really hasn't been being strict enough?

She thought back to when she was that age. Would she just blatantly break her parents rules like this? Well, the answer actually would be _yes_ , but that's because her own parents were way too strict and didn't give her enough freedom. She didn't necessarily have a _bad_ relationship with her parents, but it certainly wasn't a _warm_ one. That's why she wanted to take a different approach with her own children. She wanted to be the kind of mom who's daughter wouldn't hesitate to come to her with anything. Whether it was for advice, just telling her about her day, or something like introducing her girlfriend.

Junko looked back to the email she was working on, and found herself reading it without actually registering any of the words her eyes hovered across. She rubbed her temple and let out a sigh. _Family first, work second._ That's not a priority she could argue with even if she wanted to; her inner chemistry simply wouldn't allow it.

What was going on with Madoka?

At first it could have been blamed on her simply being _at that age_ , but by now she realized it has gone far beyond that. What could it be though? Retracing her previous thought, she and Madoka really did have the kind of relationship where Madoka would come to her with anything.

Junko imagined coming out of the closet with a girlfriend on her arm is just about the biggest bombshell a teenage girl could drop on her parents. For Madoka, even something _that_ big was like barely anything at all. Then again, Junko partly expected it never even occurred to Madoka that it was out of the ordinary for her to have a _girl_ friend. She did have that rather thick layer of innocence to her.

So what is this big secret thing that Madoka wouldn't come to her with now? It was clearly tearing her up, whatever it was, and the more Junko thought about it, the more it started to actually scare her. Madoka wanted to tell her, Junko could see that, but for some reason Madoka simply couldn't.

What could it be?

It had to do with Homura, Junko expected that much, and Madoka more or less confirmed it last time they spoke. Madoka also said that Homura would be back in town today, so Junko highly expected that's exactly who Madoka was with. Why would Madoka sneak out of the house, though? Doing something like that was so unlike her.

Junko knew where Homura's apartment was, and part of her just wanted to leave work and head over there to see if she could catch them. She could also ask Homura about whatever this secret thing was that Madoka didn't want to talk about. She had too much on her plate here at work, though, and there was a board meeting later in the day that she really couldn't miss. That was the downside to being one of the higher ups in the company; too much relied on her and it could cause a minor disaster if she just left without any warning.

She decided she would just try calling Madoka again in a little while. If she still didn't get a response by the end of the day then she would go straight to Homura's apartment after work, and see if she could get to the bottom of this.

* * *

"Auf die Anzahl _der-_ DREI!"

"Eins!"

"Zwei!"

"DREI!"

Homura stepped back, her eye's wide with horror as the clara dolls positioned themselves around the coffin. Three at it's back, and four on either side. Of the remaining three, one with blonde hair stood in front and chanted them onward, holding an oversized pin like a baton. "Eins! Zwei! DREI!" It shouted, thrusting the pin at the sky with each chant, and on _'drei'_ the twelve around the coffin pushed with all of their strength, trying to lift the massive object up into a standing position, but not seeming to have any luck.

Homulilly's head turned toward Homura. "The one at the front is Inbari, she is for pride." She explained. "The two over there not helping anything are Namake and Mie." Those two stared at her with their permanently smiling heads turned. "Namake for laziness, and Mie for vanity. It's no wonder they refuse to help the others... Can you name the rest, Homura?"

Homura looked upon each of their faces. As before, if she were to make direct eye contact with any of them, they would cringe in disgust. Something else she discovered, even more unsettling, is that she _did_ know their names, as well as what they stood for. All she had to do is look at one, and the name would be clear.

Homura's hand tightened on her shoulder, just above the severed stump. Without consciously thinking to do so, her lips began to move, and she began speaking the names of each of the remaining twelve. "Nekura. She is for _pessimism_. Usotsuki is a _liar_. Reiketsu is for _coldheartedness_. Wagamama is _selfish_."

A tear pushed itself from Homura's eye and rolled down her cheek. She could feel certain emotions overwhelming her with each mention of a name. These were not ordinary creatures with any kind of complexity to them; they each stood for something and that thing they stood for was the entirety of their existence. It was all negative, and the simple acknowledgment of each let her feel their essence in a very intense way.

What were these things? Why did she know them so well? And why did it feel like simply acknowledging their names filled her with these emotions? She continued to recite their names in a slow dull tone. "Warukuchi is for _slander_. Noroma is a _blockhead_. Yakimochi is for _jealousy_. Okubyou is a… a _c-coward_."

Homura suddenly felt like there was some incredible burden on her legs, yet at the same time her body felt light and sapped of strength to the point she could not stand. She suddenly fell to the ground, gripped her shoulder tighter, and closed her eyes tightly as she curled down and hid her head between her legs.

The presence of these creatures caused her pain; the kind of pain that came from the heart, like there was a giant hole there emitting fatigue, and pulling at every other part of her body to make her feel weak and useless. "Please!" She cried out, "What kind of nightmare is this? Let me wake up!"

She could hear the witch cackling, as it sat atop its chair nearby. Warukuchi, the slanderer, was the one to speak. " _Worthless_ isn't going to finish something she started? She never ever does!"

The selfish Wagamama chimed in, stomping her foot down and putting two balled fists at her hips. "I will _not_ wait any longer! Can we just have this done?" When these dolls spoke it was in a language that Homura technically didn't understand, yet at the same time the meaning behind their words were clear, as if somethingwas translating them for her.

Homulilly continued the eerie cackling laughter with her wooden hinges, yet spoke through the sound. "There are three left, Homura. Or should I call you _Worthless_ as well?"

Homura bit her lip, trying to stop herself, but something beyond her control compelled her, and before she knew it her lips were moving and she quickly shouted the last three names. "Manuke is _stupid looking_ , Higami is _inferior_ , and Ganko is _stubborn_!"

Her head lifted from her knees as she said the names, and she discovered she was now sitting beneath the massive coffin which now stood upright, and casted a dark shadow over her. In this position it looked like more of a doorway, and somehow it had grown much larger than its original size. Or perhaps it's that Homura herself had become smaller? Smallness didn't quite describe it, though, it's as if she couldn't quite comprehend the thing she sat beneath, the way an ant doesn't understand the true size of whatever entity it finds it's at the foot of.

The wooden lid of the coffin creaked open, completing its image of a doorway. Behind this door, Homura saw nothing but blackness. It was darker than ordinary black, because ordinary black was simply the lack of light. This blackness she now stared into was created not just from the absence of light, but the absence of existence itself. She knew, if she were to walk inside, and be consumed by it, there would be no coming out again.

She could only stare in horror, while not even the wooden cackling of Homulilly's hinged jaw, or the more subtle giggling of the fourteen dolls that surrounded her fully registered in her mind.

"No…" Homura said, shaking her head slowly, unable to peel her eyes away from the darkness. "I don't want this… If I go in there…"

"You'll become a witch." Homulilly said, finishing the thought for her. "There is no way you can resist, so why don't you give it up?"

"I don't want that! I don't want to become a witch!"

Nekura, the pessimist, let out a long exaggerated sigh. The sound was so stressed it's almost as if she were in pain. "This is wrong! It's taking _soooo_ long! Good-For-Nothing, just make Worthless go inside! Before she does, we might all die!"

"I can't control what Homura does." Homulilly's head turned over to the doll that addressed her. She didn't seem to take notice, or care, that she was addressed as _'Good-For-Nothing'_. "She has to be the one to give into the despair. Just look at her, she is quite broken, I'm sure it won't be long now."

Usotsuki, the liar, poked her head out from behind the coffin, a wicked smile spread across her face. "Come on Worthless, it'll be fine! It'll be fine! Just go inside!"

Reiketsu, the cold-hearted one, stepped over to Homura and bent down. A tomato appeared in her hand and she tossed it up and down casually. "You are disgusting to look at. Quickly, out of my sight, before I throw this at you."

Noroma, the blockhead, tugged on Yakimochi's sleeve. Yakimochi quickly batted her hand away in irritation. "Yaki?" Noroma asked, tilting her head to the side with a witless smile on her dull face. "Is she going in or not?"

"Don't ask me!" The envious Yakimochi shouted, "What's so special about her anyway?"

Namake let out a long yawn. "Do I really have to be here? I think I'd rather just rest for a while."

"Well I for one am not moving an inch until Worthless does as she should and goes inside!" Ganko said. "There is simply no way I should take no for an answer!"

Higami, who stood for inferiority, let out a depressed sigh. "This is because of the fifteenth... she is so much better than me."

Okubyou the coward gasped. "No! D-don't mention… _that_ one!" She said, wrapping her arms around herself defensively. "She doesn't need to be reminded!"

Homura's head lifted up. "Fifteenth?" She whispered.

Usotsuki the liar disappeared behind the coffin again, until her head poked back out from the other side. "Don't worry about that. Come on already! Lot's of nice things inside!"

"Fifteen…" Homura whispered again, her eyes rocked back and forth as she tried to think. What was it's name?

Her thoughts were interrupted when something smacked into her face, and exploded it's sticky red innards all over her. Homura cried out as she used both hands to try and wipe the tomato from her face, but most of it stayed stuck to her, painting half of her face red and getting clumped in her hair.

Reiketsu laughed, "I told you, Worthless, I'm tired of looking at that disgusting face."

"You're such a bully!" The stupid looking Manuke said. She rubbed the corner of her eye, teasing Homura further by pretending to cry for her. Most of the other dolls started laughing and pointing at her. Homura looked at each of their cruel laughing faces, which held not a grain of sympathy, and she started to feel crushed by it.

Homulilly cackled, and Homura looked over to her, her eyes wide with shock and asking for help as the laughter of the dolls overwhelmed her. This situation was horrible, she truly felt worthless. In the real world, people would take pity on someone like this, and there would be at least some kindness offered to her. These creatures were not people, though, and they seemed to just want her to feel worse and worse. Like a group of bullies who didn't know they were going too far, except in this case, going too far is exactly what they wanted.

 _Stop it!_ Homura thought, clutching onto her shoulder so tightly her knuckles turned white. She must have looked like an absolute mess. Her eyes slunk away from Homulilly, who's porcelain face wasn't able to offer any of the sympathy she wanted.

Manuke had been pretending to cry for her, and started making a bigger show of it for the other dolls, whining in a comedic fashion, now using both hands to rub her eyes, and instigating more laughter from her sisters.

 _Stop it!_

"Uhg, she's so gross!" Mie said, trying to shield her eyes, but peaking through her fingers like a child watching a horror movie. "She should be ashamed!"

 _Stop it!_

"What a pathetic girl." Reiketsu said, folding her arms and turning away. "She deserves it."

 _Stop!_

"Hey worthless!" Usotsuki called out, pointing into the coffin. "You can get cleaned up in here! You really can!"

"STOP IT!" Homura finally screamed, "STOP IT!" and the dolls instantly obeyed as her voice echoed across the great red fields that spanned out in every direction as far as her eyes could see.

"There's one more." Homura said, turning to Homulilly. "There's a fifteenth."

The witch's jaw started to move up and down slowly as it spoke, and its button eyes stared at Homura. "No one knows the name of that devil, but she stands for love, and all the false hope that comes with it. It's that devil who has led you to this sorry state, and it can offer you no salvation, just more false hope to extend your suffering. I've watched for so long, and waited, while these servants of mine spent their days chastising their good-for-nothing master."

Homulilly's jaw snapped shut. Somehow, staring at those button eyes, they became less lifeless, and more piercing. Homura almost thought she could see some sincerity in this creature, unlike the dolls themselves who only held hate in their hearts. "Just let this end Homura. You've defeated Walpurgisnacht, haven't you? And Madoka Kaname has not made a contract. Isn't that enough? Isn't it fine to let it end here?"

There was silence, even the claras stopped their giggling and berating for the moment, yet Homura could still feel their eyes on her, watching her intently and awaiting her decision.

"Despair… really isn't so bad…" Homulilly continued. "Holding onto false hope is much more painful. It's a struggle to keep the illusion up, and finally turning your back on it and sinking into despair is… something of a relief." Her jaw reopened, displaying her white wooden teeth in that odd grinning gesture. "Just give in to it, Homura. We can create such a beautiful world together. It'll be our perfect paradise."

"I… can't…" Homura said, and subconsciously her eyes shifted back to the coffin. The dolls all backed away and cleared a path so she wouldn't be blocked from staring into the abyss. Her cheeks were wet, and more tears streamed down from her eyes. "If I do… I won't be able to protect her anymore."

"It was an impossible wish. As all wish's are." Homulilly said, "No matter how long you try to stay by her side, all things end in despair... I've tried to explain this already. All you can do is take a longer path, but the destination is always the same. So why stay that painful course, when your destination lies right before you?"

Homura flinched when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Homulilly had moved from the chair to kneel down behind her, and now they stared into the coffin together. "There is more that can come with this. What about those people who have tormented you? Dr. Mono? He is nearby. As you are now, there is nothing you could ever do to him. You will always be trapped; out of reach, and at his mercy. If you let me take control, however, I can reach him easily."

Homura could hear the witch's jaw snap shut again as she continued. "Their walls are nonexistent for me, and isn't there someone else you want to take revenge on?" The witch's hand moved down Homura's shoulder, moved past her hand, and found a place on what remained of her left arm. Her boney fingers curled over the stump. The touch felt incredibly cold against the exposed flesh. "Do you think she knows where witches come from? I don't think she does. She will be completely unexpecting of us. I think we will destroy her quite easily."

"I…" Homura continued to stare into the blackness. As if to remind her that they were still there, some of the claras leaned forward and gave her one of their disgusted grimaces.

Inside the darkness, they wouldn't bother her anymore. The way they treated her was a truly awful thing to experience. If she stayed here, they would start doing it again.

The heartless one summoned a new tomato, and subtly threatened her with it by tossing it up and down.

Homura shook her head. "I… I… ca-"

Suddenly, she felt some force strike her body, like a hundred knives had been jammed into her all at once. She screamed and fell forward onto her hands and knees, then quickly looked up and glanced around, trying to figure out what it was. She saw the clara dolls all had pained expressions on their faces as well, as if they also felt the same pain she just felt. "W-what?"

It wasn't just her and the clara dolls. Homura looked around, and saw the whole world was responding to the force that just struck her. The clouds overhead swirled together, as if gathering for a storm, the fields of red rippled beneath the wind, and she could feel a slight tremor coming from the ground.

She turned to Homulilly for an explanation, and felt it again, once again screaming, and this time the clara dolls screamed along with her.

"NO! We're doomed! Doomed!" Nekura screamed, and started running around in circles with her hands on her head. " _Dooooo_ med!"

Ibari, the prideful one who led the march and had been silent since commanding the other dolls to raise the coffin, now raised her oversized needle at the sky and shouted. "We'll not go down so easily!" Then she spun her needle around and pointed it at Homura. "Worthless! Into the box! Now!"

"What's happening?" She asked Homulilly.

The witch looked around, it's stiff shoulders moving with it's head. Then the wooden jaw fell open. "Our world is in danger. There is no more time, you must do it now." Her head snapped back towards Homura with the wooden jaw hanging wide open in a mock expression of horror. "This world is housed inside your _soul_. Something is compromising it, I think the humans have found your secret."

Homura's own eyes widened, "My soul? My SoulGem?"

"If something happens, and they decide to destroy it, we will never get a chance to be born! We have waited so long… too long!" Homulilly's jaw snapped shut, the red laces drawn through her button eyes suddenly loosened, and the buttons fell lower. Her long black hair bounced up as if hit by a gust of wind, and she screamed. Her porcelain face started cracking along the cheeks. "Do it now! Homura!"

* * *

"A _Puella Magi_?" Kaiji said, cocking his eyebrow.

"Well, they call themselves Magical Girls." Takashi explained, with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's really hard to get anyone to take you seriously if you go around using that term, though, so we're sticking with Puella Magi."

Aida cleared her throat, ignoring the skepticism in Kaiji's eyes. "Homura is what we call a Puella Magi. As much as we know, only girls in the range of a certain age may gain this power; the ability to use magic."

"Magic is also their word for it." Takashi interjected, "We couldn't think of a better word, and what it implies is good enough."

"Is this a joke?" Kaiji asked, looking back and forth between them, but their faces were completely serious.

"No need to feign ignorance with this, doctor." Aida said. "We would not have bothered taking you here if we did not think you would be of any use to us."

"Yeah, if that _were_ the case we would have just put one in the back of your head and been done with it." Takashi said, then used his hand to mimic firing a gun.

Kaiji instantly met his eyes, while Aida shook her head. "I'm getting really tired of you threatening me." Kaiji said.

"It's not a threat." Takashi said, staring back at him. Takashi's face held no emotion, it did not match the face of some threatening death on someone else, and somehow that lack of emotion actually made him seem even more serious. "The truth is, you have been a lot of trouble. You would be dead right now, but we realized you might be useful."

"Takashi's words are true." Aida said, "I wish he would not speak them so easily, but this is the truth. Things have changed, however, and we no longer wish to end your life, Dr. Kaiji. Instead, I would like for you to join us, and be a part of our team."

Kaiji pulled on the handcuffs, rattling them. "Sorry if I'm not overly enthused about the offer."

Takashi slammed a fist down on top of the table, bringing Kaiji's eyes back to his own. "This woman right here is the only _real_ reason you are still alive. Like I said, we were going to kill you, but she intervened and now you are here. So I suggest you speak to her a little more graciously. Also, our _offer_ isn't exactly an offer, unless you want to consider it of the _'cant refuse'_ variety."

"So basically, I do what you tell me to, or you do kill me."

"Basically." Takashi agreed.

"I still have no idea who you people are." Kaiji said, quickly glancing over his shoulder to the two suited guards who stood by the door on the other side of the warehouse.

"I will explain what I can, but forgive any vagueness." Aida said, "Our organization is not very big, but of a good size. We value quality of agents over quantity, and this is good to keep us in secrecy. To describe us simply, we are a tightly knitted intelligence network, which holds few ties to any specific nations but have contacts in many of them. Our soul purpose, is the discovery of magic. You, Kaiji, are in a vast minority with us to even know of it's existence, yet I think it would surprise you to know that girls like Homura exist in almost every city across the world."

Kaiji would be lying if he didn't admit that sparked his interest. Thanks to Leiko and Kyoko, he knew that there were more girls than just Homura who had abilities, or _magic_ as it was apparently called, but could this phenomenon really be so wide spread?

"At least, this is our belief." Aida continued. "Finding Puella Magi, or Magical Girls as they refer to themselves, is not easy. Aside from the trouble of numbers, finding one girl amongst hundreds of thousands in a city, they seem to want to keep themselves secret and will avoid detection… quite impressively in fact… almost as if someone, or something, warns them when we find their trail, and then this trail will disappear again."

"So how did we end up here?" Kaiji asked. "How do you know about our lab, and what goes on inside it?"

"The existence of your lab is not something we have known for very long, only a few days in fact, but as you might have guessed we have made contact with someone within the lab. I'm sure this doesn't surprise you, since we have security footage from underground."

"No… that would only make sense." Kaiji said, "But who is it?"

The two of them glanced at each other, and Takashi asked, "Should we just tell him?"

"Either he works with us and finds out anyway, or doesn't work with us and he dies." Aida said simply, showing a coldness to herself that wasn't as obvious before. She looked back to Kaiji. "I am sorry for your situation, but I think it is better to be direct about these things, so you understand your stakes."

Kaiji's own face hardened. "I don't know what you want from me, or how much you know about me, but a life or death ultimatum will only go so far in making me cooperate with you."

"Strong words." Aida said, "But I would ask this; what is the value of your life? It is in my experience that people tend to undervalue what they would be willing to pay. That is, until they are truly faced with that choice. I believe what we will ask of you is more than a fair exchange.

"As for our contact in the lab…" She continued, "It is Dr. Endou himself."

Kaiji's eyes fell back to the table and he cursed. It didn't entirely surprise him, but his situation would have been much less dire if Endou wasn't involved in this. "Of course, I should have known. Only he would orchestrate something this underhanded… I suppose he is the one who suggested kidnapping me?"

"No." Takashi said, "He suggested _killing_ you. Aida is the one who suggested kidnapping you."

"Why?" Kaiji asked, with a cold voice.

"Perhaps I should explain how we came into contact with Endou in the first place." Aida said. "First I should explain that I'm a specialist in exploiting computer code, what you would call a hacker. Through connections unrelated to our organization, but some friends of mine I know through an online community, I became aware of a rather curious case in the world of hackers.

"I was very fortunate that this somehow found me, and it is what eventually brought us to Mitakihara. Somewhere in this city, there is a hacker with abilities no one has ever seen before. This hacker isn't just good, it's as if she follows her own set of rules. The principle to this rule set, as I see it, is there are no rules for her."

"I don't understand." Kaiji said.

"Let's say this." Aida continued. "Imagine cyber security as a door. If a hacker would like to get through this door, and into the room it guards, there are a few approaches they might take. They could forge a key to unlock it, they could physically break the door down, or find another way in like a window around back, and access the room that way. This hacker in question seems to have another method. The best way I can describe it is this; for this hacker, doors do not exist. It seems she can just do whatever she wants."

"That's… interesting… and I can't help but notice you keep saying _'she'_." Kaiji pointed out.

"This was a guess, but by now it is well supported. I believe our super hacker is a Puella Magi, and therefore she is a teenage girl. I first had this theory when looking at the few cases of this hacker's influence I could find. Most of these cases were from about six weeks ago, when I believe she first discovered her powers, because there is a window of a couple weeks where there are many traces to be found. After that, she seems to have gotten more careful, and has done better with covering her tracks. Still, it was enough for me to track her to Japan, and eventually here to Mitakihara.

"Magic is a very curious thing to us." She continued. "There are no hard rules for how it works that we are aware of, and the ways it is used differ greatly in what few cases we have documented. Therefore, we have no reason to think that it can not be used for the sake of hacking as well. We were unsure if this truly was the case when we first arrived in Mitakihara, but by now we do know this for certain."

Takashi took over the next part of the story. "We started looking for more evidence of magic being used here in this city. Well, to make a long story short, we didn't find anything in Mitakihara, but right down the street in the little town of _Kazamino_ there is a certain church that caught our interest."

"The Mad Prophet." Kaiji said.

"That's right." Takashi said with a grin, "And it's thanks to your curiosity in the Sakura family that we eventually started looking into you. Looking into you, thus led us to the lab, and to Dr. Endou."

"Wait… how exactly did you know I was looking into the Sakura family in the first place?" Kaiji asked.

"I did say I am a hacker, did I not?" Aida said. "My abilities are child's play compared to the magical hacker we are aware of, but still, compared to any normal hacker… well, lets say I have _abnormal abilities_ in understanding computer _language_ myself. I hacked into the Kazamino police department, and it is actually your brothers inquiry into the Sakura Cult case files which first put us on your trail."

"We knew where you worked, but not what was going on there." Takashi said. "However, knowing where you worked was enough for us to find out about Kay _Sakura_. When Aida discovered influences of our super hacker not just around your workplace, but around Kay Sakura herself, we knew we hit the jackpot."

"Part of my luck in being able to track this hacker, is I have found a way to discover when she has been somewhere. Imagine a worm put inside an ant farm with a width not much larger than the width of the worm itself. You would be able to see where the worm has been from the tunnels it makes. It is the case with our super hacker. Her ability seems to affect data at its very core, binary code, and I created a program to analyze patterns in binary code, which by it's nature is one dimensional.

"It is not perfect, but I am proud of what I accomplished with what little data I had to analyze. It works good enough, and I can see when she has been somewhere within a degree of uncertainty. However, simply seeing if she has effected a specific piece of data that I analyze is all I can do. I can not discern what actions she may have taken, or what she may have changed. Simply that she was there, and that is all.

"Now for Kay, and Kyoko Sakura. Or, _Misato_ Sakura, as we originally knew her. If only using digital sources to look into these characters, their identities are solid. However, as you experienced with this physical copy of the Sakura Cult police report, when you use real life sources to verify their identities the illusion falls apart quite easily."

"That was my side of the operation." Takashi explained. "Aida warned that if we were to try and call Kay Sakura's acquaintances, or contact them through some other digital means, the hacker would know and even take steps to stop the contact. That, or alter our messages in a way we would be better off not contacting them at all, as you and Dr. Endou experienced.

"However, tracking them down and meeting with them the old fashioned way was still on the table. I traveled all the way to Tokyo University to do just that, and under the guise of a journalist I made contact with some people. What I found is, professors and classmates who should have been well aware of such an accomplished student as Kay Sakura had absolutely no idea who I was talking about."

"With Kay Sakura's identity proven as false," Aida said, "and finding that the hacker has been manipulating the communications of your lab, Dr. Endou was quite eager to make an alliance with us when we reached out to him. He seemed to already suspect Kay Sakura's identity, and that his communications have been effected, and when we confirmed his suspicions he was happy to start making arrangements with us. He may not have been so easily convinced if he did not expect such issues in the first place, so this was very fortunate. I find it rather quite impressive he has correctly deduced such things with so little evidence. He is an impressive man, wouldn't you say?"

Kaiji didn't respond to that. He couldn't deny that Endou was a vastly intelligent person, inhumanly so, sometimes, but Kaiji had no interest in singing his praises. Despite his intelligence, Kaiji didn't find much else _praiseworthy_ about him.

"Anyway, he warned that your meddling, Dr. Kaiji, could cause him to lose power in the lab, and thus cause us to miss out on a great opportunity."

"Just to be clear." Takashi said, "We are not working for Dr. Endou. We simply recognised an opportunity and seized it, and made him an ally. My personal opinion of the guy? He kind of leaves me feeling like there's a bad taste in my mouth. The idea of someone who gets off on making a teenage girl his mindslave, that is a whole other kind of sickness. After talking with him, and reading some of the logs he leaked to us, it's clear that really is the kind of person he is."

"Then why would you work with him?" Kaiji asked.

"There are many horrors in this world, Dr. Kaiji." Aida explained. "Entire countries are plagued with disease, children starve with never really getting a chance at life, war prisoners undergoing tortures that last for years and years. When these things exist, but we are only vaguely aware, it is not a problem. We sleep well at night because we are not directly faced with them. Is it not hypocritical for the separation in one's morality simply having direct knowledge of such horrors? What is one girl's suffering when her life is just another drop in an ocean of sorrow? And why should this stop science from moving forward?"

"What the hell kind of logic is that?" Kaiji said, raising his voice. "That's like saying if you see a man getting beaten on the side of the road, it's hypocritical if you don't run over and get a kick in yourself."

"It's a clever enough analogy, but when thinking critically, analogies rarely stand well next to their counterpart. Besides, how are we any different than you? Until very recently, did you not condone the actions of your lab?"

"There are many things that began happening _recently_ , that I _never_ condoned."

"Yet, you never complained about her being taken there in the first place? Or the degrading tests and experimentation Homura has gone through. Have you? What about when they would use tasers to keep her under control? I'm sure talk of Galazadrine was not something recent either, it's actual use maybe, but was this option at least considered by you? At what point in all of this do you decide that, _'ok now things have gone too far'_ , and why does that give you a right to claim morality now?"

Kaiji was silent for a long moment before saying. "It doesn't… and despite how you try to spin it, things really have gone too far now. Actually, none of this should have happened in the first place. It was all a huge mistake, and I would put an end to all of it if I could." Kaiji clicked his teeth, "I can't believe you know all of that in the first place. I can't believe Endou would just give away so much information to an outside sources like this."

"We were honestly quite surprised by how forthcoming Dr. Endou has been with us." Aida said. "I can tell you this, he knows far less about us than we know about him, and the rest of your lab"

"Hell," Takashi laughed. "If we wanted to quit with our mission and sell out, we could take videos of Homura's tests to the media, expose the whole thing, and make a fortune."

"What?" Kaiji shouted, "He even gave you that kind of classified footage? Those were not even suppose to leave the lab!"

"We asked for a sample of what his test subject could do." Aida explained, "We needed to verify that magic is really what they have found. He complied with our request. And is it not also hypocritical for you to be angered by his breach in protocol when you allowed a very likely second test subject to walk free?"

Kaiji sighed. "Call it hypocritical or whatever you want, if my actions saved another girl from going through what Homura has gone through, I was happy to do it."

Takashi let out an inarticulate grunt, like a suppressed chuckle, and leaned forward. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but you might want to wipe that philanthropic look off your face."

Kaiji raised an eyebrow at him. The tone of his voice was worrisome. Kyoko definitely made it out of the lab, but Takashi seemed to be implying something… was she tracked somehow? "What are you saying?"

"You were stupid for letting her go… actually, on the other hand, letting her go may have inadvertently been the smartest thing you could have done. It gave you a purpose beyond simply needing to be taken out of the picture."

Kaiji stared him down hard, not liking the way this was sounding.

Takashi returned the stare, with that eerily dark tint in his eyes. "We are going to give you a chance to right your wrongs. If you do this, and show you are willing to play ball, maybe you really can get out of all of this alive."

"Do what exactly?" Kaiji said with a harsh tone.

Takashi leaned back and pointed his thumb at the TV screen which still held the frozen image of Kyoko in the produce store. "We want you to help us capture Kyoko Sakura."

* * *

Leiko's fingers danced along the keyboard, those strange indecipherable symbols flashed across the screen and turned her glasses into two flickering white orbs. Her lips formed a perfect line as she concentrated fully on her work, and all the other girls stood around behind her waiting for what she might find.

After the detective left, Leiko explained that he was Dr. Kaiji's brother. She didn't know how much he knew, but it was clear he was particularly interested in learning Kyoko's full name.

Leiko's typing stopped, and she turned around in her computer chair to address the other girls. "He's outside, probably staking us out." She said, and everyone took in the seriousness of the situation. "However, there are no other outgoing calls other than a few he made trying to get in contact with Kaiji, but he wasn't successful. According to the dispatch office at the police department, he claimed he is keeping an eye on _possible Yakuza activity_. I don't know how much he knows, I doubt that he know everything and his inaction supports this thought. I think we are safe... for now."

"He's probably waiting until he can get in contact with Kaiji." Mami said. "Where is Kaiji right now?"

"I lost track of his GPS. He sent his wife a message saying he is staying at the lab, and that's the last place the GPS pinged him at. He probably just turned the phone off, or took it to the underground part of the lab where the signal is blocked."

"W-what about Homura?" Madoka asked with a shaky voice. "Is there anything new with her?"

"No…" Leiko said. She adjusted her glasses, mulling over a thought which she was hesitant to share.

"What is it?" Sayaka asked.

"Well… There really hasn't been much of anything coming through from the lab, at least not directly related to Homura's condition. They started operating on her, I know that much, but nothing specific came through since then, other than something in the logs which indicate a couple X-ray technicians were called in. I just find it odd, because until recently their updates have been fairly frequent, but they abruptly stopped…The bombing must have really shaken them or something."

Kyoko had been pacing around by the back wall of the room. Her green hoodie was in the wash right now, because of the tea Leiko had spilled on her earlier, so she was only wearing her black tank top for now.

She walked over to the window, used one finger to move the blinds to the side, and peeked out. She scanned the streets below until she spotted a police car parked on the corner of an adjacent street. Her eyes flashed red as she used her magic to improve her eyesight, and she could now clearly see the detective's face inside his squad car, as though she were looking through a pair of binoculars. She put her fingers on the bridge of her nose and undid the spell, then turned away from the window. "Yeah, he's out there alright." She said. "Leiko, can you do anything to get him off of us? Like, send out a false call and force them to dispatch him somewhere else? Or something?"

Leiko turned in her chair until she could face Kyoko. "I could, but lets save that bullet for when and if we need it. No point sending him out on a wild goose chase just so he can come right back here when he figures out it's a false alarm. Since I suspect he already knows the police department has been hacked before, doing something like that might just raise his suspicions of us further. Plus he will be less likely to heed another call if we need to try that trick again."

Madoka's phone started to ring. She took it out of her skirt pocket, looked at the screen with a frown, then rejected the call. Her downcast eyes made the guilt clear on her face.

"Was that your mom again?" Sayaka asked, and Madoka only responded with a nod. Her father had called her several times earlier that day, and this was now the second time her mother called her. "Are you sure it's ok to ignore her calls?" Sayaka asked carefully.

Madoka was still for a moment, then slowly returned the phone to her pocket with a small shake of her head. "No… but I really don't know if I can hold myself together if I start talking to her… besides that… I would only be able to lie to her... a-and I really can't take doing that anymore…"

Sayaka put her hand on Madoka's shoulder and tried to give her the most reassuring expression she could muster, but her most hopeful expression still came off as a frown. She really didn't know what to say. She wanted to tell Madoka that everything was going to be alright, but anyway she could think to word it felt phony. "Homura isn't alone." She eventually said. "There _is_ a way to get her out, we just haven't thought of it yet."

Those words caused Kyoko's pacing to stop, and Mami visibly stirred and hung her head regretfully. "Well, something needs to happen." Kyoko said. "And I mean now. We can't just tiptoe around and spend three days planning."

"But… at the same time we can't be reckless." Mami offered, her voice failing to hold it's usual authoritative quality.

"I'm saying this right now." Kyoko said. "If we don't come up with something before Kay's appointment tonight, I'm going whether you are ok with it or not. So you better get your thinking caps on." She set her gaze on Mami who didn't seem able to look her in the eyes herself. "And don't you dare think about pulling any bullshit with your magic again."

"Leiko…" Mami said, ignoring Kyoko. "Is it possible for you to use your hacking to open the doors of the lab?"

"Of course not." Leiko said, "I explained before, their security systems are physically disconnected to the outside. If that were ever an option all of this would have been over a long time ago."

"If you were able to connect to their systems you could do it though, right?" Kyoko asked.

"It's not even worth talking about." Leiko spoke dryly. "But yes."

"Ok, so why the hell are we _not_ exploring that option. Huh?" Kyoko asked, staring her down.

Leiko scoffed and abruptly turned around in her chair to face the computer once again. She didn't respond, and just got back to typing. Kyoko watch her for a moment, then asked. "What the hell are you doing?" When Leiko still didn't respond, Kyoko started walking towards her. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" Her hand reached out to grab the computer chair and spin her around, but Sayaka grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Don't." Sayaka said softly, not wanting another conflict to stir up. That really isn't what they needed right now.

After a moment, Leiko did speak. "Getting me inside the lab is the only way." She explained. "If you had a way to get me in the lab, however, you wouldn't actually need me anymore, because obviously that would mean we found a way to get past the doors anyway. That's why it's not worth talking about, and all of that is still assuming I would be willing stick my neck out like that in the first place. Which I am not."

Kyoko growled and tried to move forward, but Sayaka got completely in front of her. Wrapping her in a bear hug and pushing against her with her shoulder to keep her back.

"Kyoko!" Sayaka said.

"Furthermore." Leiko said. "Let's say I magically found myself in the control room, or somewhere else which gave me enough access to do what you want me to do. I can only maintain control over their lab for as long as I am at whatever terminal I use. Therefore, the second I try to leave myself, I won't be in control anymore and the doors would slam shut. Then we'll just have this whole situation reversed, with me as their new test subject, and screw that."

"Can't you just reprogram it or somethin'?" Kyoko shouted.

"I don't know anything about their system. So who knows how long it could take." Leiko said, each keystrokes becoming harder and harder with her agitation. "It's too risky, and it's a risk I am NOT taking, so DROP IT!"

"Damn it! You're just giving up without even trying!" She got her hand under Sayaka's arm, and tried to push her to the side, but Sayaka didn't let go and instead ended up behind her, digging her heels into the ground and leaning back to hold Kyoko off.

"Kyoko! Cut it out! Just calm down!"

"S-stop!" Madoka said, fidgeting her hands at her chest. "W-we don't need to be fighting right now!"

"Oh, don't worry about it!" Kyoko sneered, "I'm totally calm! But there is no way she is just going to sit there and be all nonchalant about this!" She managed to make it forward a step and get her hand on the back of Leiko's chair, then promptly spun her around.

Leiko's hands were still in position to type, even though there was no longer a keyboard under her fingers. She had a shocked, maybe even scared, expression in her eyes but she quickly shook it away and stood. "What the hell do you expect from me?" She said, looking to the side, her expression hidden by the glare of her glasses.

Kyoko managed to roll her shoulder in a way that convinced Sayaka to let her go. She didn't seem like she was losing her temper, so Sayaka accepting the unspoken request, and slowly let her arms pull away from her girlfriend, but still stood nearby.

"What do I expect from you?" Kyoko said, her voice low but affirmative. "I expect you to quit being such a coward."

Those words seemed to surprise Leiko, and she looked back to Kyoko, hardening her expression. "Whatever, I don't need this." She said, and started to turn away. "I'm out of here."

Before she could even make it one step, there was a firm grip on her shoulder that pulled her back. Leiko gritted her teeth, and batted Kyoko's hand away. "Keep your damn hand off me."

"So that's what you do, huh?" Kyoko asked, "Just run away whenever you're uncomfortable? Well we don't got time for your pathetic insecurities, so cut it out."

Leiko frown deepened, pure annoyance on her face, and she clicked her teeth. "You know, you sound really stupid right now. Acting like you know anything about me. Because if you did, you would understand… You all are clearly really good friends, and willing to risk your necks for each other, and I can respect that, but I'm not part of it. The only reason I come anywhere near you lunatics is because I need GriefSeeds. There is only so far I am willing to go for that purpose, though."

Then a sound caused everyone in the room to jump. Leiko's face was forced to the side, and Kyoko's palm remained open. Leiko's hand slowly raised to her reddening cheek and felt the spot where she had just been slapped.

"Who's stupid now?" Kyoko said with a sneer. "Did you seriously think I was just going to let you get away with saying that kind of crap?"

Leiko eye's were wide, and she was completely motionless until her hand slowly left her cheek and went to readjust her glasses which were hanging half way off of her face. As she did so, her hand was clearly shaking. Kyoko's intense expression fell away to something more neutral. Then, when a sound escaped Leiko's lips along with a slight heave of her chest, Kyoko put on a full frown.

"Look…" Kyoko started, letting her eyes fall to the side. Then there was a flash of light, and Leiko raised a fist as her Magical Girl costume began appearing around her. Before the transformation was even complete, she screamed and her fist lashed forward. Kyoko jumped back, easily avoiding the strike, and Leiko stumbled from arcing her arm across thin air. Her poor posture as she regained her balance spoke mountains toward her inexperience in combat.

Leiko gritted her teeth, there was wetness in her eyes behind her glasses, and she lashed forward once again. Perhaps missing that first strike frustrated her even further, taking her even further beyond her good senses, because her gloved hand glowed brightly from the magic she fed into this next attack.

Never one to not strike back, Kyoko's was already finishing her own transformation, with red light finishing the ends of her tunic as she put an open palm forward to catch the blow and prepare a counter attack.

Mami shot a ribbon forward, trying to stop the collision, and the ribbon managed to land right between Leiko's fist and Kyoko's open hand where it got sandwiched between the two if them. "Stop it you two!"

The white light of Leiko's magic mixed with the red from Kyoko's as they forced their magic against each other, each growling and trying to overpower the other. Mami's ribbon probably held some of it back, and they were locked in a brief stalemate. Mami pulled the ribbon taught.

Leiko let out a scream as she forced as much magic out as she could, and then a sudden shock wave caused both Leiko and Kyoko to fly away from each other in opposite directions. Leiko fell into the computer desk, her butt landing on the keyboard, and her elbow flying back and smashing into the center of the computer screen. Kyoko's back hit the ground on the other side of the room.

Mami cried out as her ribbon disappeared, and she crouched down, holding onto her wrist and looking at the palm she had held the ribbon with, which was now badly burned with a thick line of seared flesh running across the center of it. Leiko and Kyoko continued to stare eachother down from opposite ends of the room, breathing heavy. Mami's eyes were wide as she continued to stare at her hand and slowly raised back to a stand.

Leiko's eyes sunk away, losing the stare down with Kyoko, and she cursed. She rolled around, turning her back to Kyoko so she could examine the damage to her computer. "Damn it." She said. "It's ruined!" She kept her sight on the computer, part of the reason she didn't want to turn around is she didn't want anyone to see the wetness on her cheeks.

"Kyoko are you ok?" Sayaka asked, as she went to kneel down by Kyoko.

"Yeah… just peachy…" She said, with rough sarcasm.

Madoka managed to hold herself together somehow, but the distress was clear on her face. She seemed like she was preparing to shout at them for getting into such a pointless bout when things were already so bad.

Before Madoka had a chance to say whatever it was she was going to say, she stopped when Mami spoke with an awed tone in her voice. "Everyone, look."

Every head turned towards her, hearing the gravity in her voice.

"It's Leiko's magic." Mami explained, with a subtle level of fascination. "It burned me."

Leiko glanced over to her, looked at it guiltily for a moment before looking back to the shattered computer screen, then said, "I'm sorry… I overreacted…"

"No! Leiko." Mami said again, pushing her palm forward to show it to her more clearly. "That's from your magic!"

"I… I know… I'm sorry." Leiko said, glancing back to the wound. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I…"

"No, you don't understand." Mami said, then showed her palm to the whole room. Mostly everyone seemed confused, maybe there was a partial consensus among them that the stress had finally gotten the better of her and their senpai was teetering on going off the deep end. That is, until she spoke her next words. "It traveled _through_ my ribbon!"

* * *

 **Thank's for reading!**

 **First I would like to thank Alvaro84 for putting together another fan art. Things are getting pretty tense, so hopefully this short comic titled "I Want My Hand Back" can be a minor break from that tension and maybe get a laugh. At the very least I very much appreciate Alvaro84 taking time to make something like this. Incase you missed it before, he also made something including Test Subject One in another art titled 'Junkies' which you can also find on his deviantart page. (And I'll say again, I really wish FFN could be cool and make linking things easier)**

 **Alvaro84 (d-o-t) deviantart (d-o-t) com/gallery/60698177/I-want-my-hand-back**

 **Big thanks again to my beta reader Axius27, for always being a big help with editing or just bouncing ideas off of. He has been working on another TSO spinoff for an age now, and it should (hopefully) be getting posted in the next few days, under the title "Test Subject One: Yandere Madoka" so keep an eye out for that. If you have not read his previous spinoff "Test Subject One: Ransom" be sure to check that out too.**

 **Update 10/30- TSO: Yandere Madoka is now out, and don't let the name fool you. For a somewhat silly premise this turned out to be anything but silly and actually quite dark (in a good way). Here is the story ID.** /s/12210873/

 **Next I plan on releasing another Perfect Crime chapter, hopefully in about a week, so keep an eye out for that as well.**

 **-Atomyst**


	24. Chapter 24

"What are you saying?" Mami said, folding her arms and staring down the dark Magical Girl. "That is just ridiculous!"

"For real, just why exactly would Kyubey do something like that to us?" Sayaka said. "This is stupid, we already know just how two-faced you are! Do you really expect us to believe something like that coming from you of all people?"

"I'm with the rookie on that one," said Kyoko, poising her spear. "Mami, Sayaka, why don't the two of you get out of here. I've got a score to settle with this chick. I'll settle things with the rest of ya' later."

Homura just stood there with her eyes closed, waiting for the initial berating to come to an end. This wasn't the first time she had been in this situation with this group, after all, so she knew it would be pointless to try and talk over them for at least another few minutes.

"W-would you all just listen to her?" Madoka said, stepping forward. Her eyes were already tearing up. She had been the first to hear the truth about how a SoulGem was quite literally the container for a Magical Girl's soul and she trusted what Homura had told her while time was stopped. "Sh-she wouldn't lie about something this serious!"

Sayaka gritted her teeth, upset to see that Madoka was still staying by Homura's side despite all of this. "Madoka! What the heck are you thinking? I don't know why you can't see it, but she quite clearly has a few screws loose, and that's just the start of it." Sayaka disenchanted her sword as she walked forward, then forcefully grabbed Madoka by the wrist. Madoka gasped as Sayaka started pulling her away.

"Sayaka! Stop it!" Madoka said, trying to resist, but Sayaka always was much stronger than her, even before becoming a Magical Girl. "Y-you're hurting me!"

Sayaka continued to walk forward, pulling Madoka along behind her. "Sorry, but I don't care if you get mad at me for this or not. Whatever you think, she's dangerous and I'm going to protect you from her."

"Sayaka, let go of me!" Madoka screamed. "I don't need protection!"

Madoka suddenly disappeared from her grasp, and Sayaka stumbled forward from the release of resistance. She quickly spun around to find Homura standing right in front of her with Madoka now a few paces behind. The girl's eyes were dark and intense. "Madoka asked you to let her go, Sayaka Miki. I try to respect your relationship as childhood friends, but I won't stand by and watch someone hurt my girlfriend, no matter who they are."

Sayaka quickly enchanted a sword into her grasp and brought its tip up to Homura's throat. When it registered in Madoka's mind what Sayaka was doing she let out a loud gasp and shouted: "No! S-stop! Sayaka!"

Homura had no reaction to Sayaka's blade, but she put out an open palm behind herself to signal Madoka back. "Just stay back for a moment, Madoka. It's alright."

"Sayaka," Mami said, taking a few steps forward. "There is a much simpler way to deal with this." Sayaka did not respond, and instead just continued to stare down Homura, whose face still failed to react to the aggression. Mami continued: "Let's see if she is able to prove this wild claim. If she can not, then I'm sure even Madoka will begin to see her for what she is." She put a hand on Sayaka's shoulder, and gently pulled her back, and Sayaka grudgingly let her blade lower in response. "So how about it, Miss Akemi? Can you actually prove this claim? That Kyubey has lied to us about what exactly his contract entails, and that our SoulGems are in fact our souls in a physical form?"

Homura stared at them with a blank expression on her face.

Sayaka clicked her teeth. "What did I tell you? Look at her, she's got nothing to say. She is lying about this just like she lies about everything!" She tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword, and held it more steadily with its tip mere inches from Homura's chest. "I don't know how you managed to get Madoka to buy into your crap, but I'm done with this. Either you leave this town, and leave Madoka alone, or I'm really going to have to do something about it!"

Kyoko nearby rolled her eyes, thinking how foolish the rookie was. Kyoko now saw the dark Magical Girl as her enemy as well, but she knew that Sayaka was way out of her league openly challenging Homura like this. She was just about to step in herself, before Homura started to move forward. Kyoko's spear suddenly became limp in her hands and her mouth fell open in shock.

Mami gasped: "Akemi-san!"

"H-Homura-chan!" Madoka shouted, eyes wide.

Homura walked into Sayaka's blade and forced her body forward, not reacting at all as its tip sunk into her chest and a dark red stain appeared on her blouse. Sayaka gasped, and tried stepping back, but Homura matched each step forward, and drove herself against the blade even harder until it penetrated all the way through her and it's now-crimson tip appeared out of the center of her back with another red stain forming around the exit wound.

Sayaka screamed, letting the blade go and tripping as she tried to back away. She fell down hard, landing on her butt and just stared at Homura with wide horrified eyes.

"This is the truth of what our bodies are like," Homura explained with a rough voice. Blood slid down along the blade, and dripped from the hilt as Homura raised her hand to grab it. She pulled the blade from her chest in one quick motion, coughing up a small spray of blood as she tossed the blade to the side. The sword dispersed into a mist of fine blue sparkles, almost like snow flakes, before finishing its descent to the ground.

Homura grinned ironically, her teeth and gums now dark-red with blood. "I'm afraid I am not so good at blocking out the pain, but that is another skill we possess. You will become quite adept at this yourself, Sayaka Miki."

"M-monster!" Sayaka screamed, pointing one finger at the girl who stood over her. "I knew there was something up with you! Y-you're not even human!"

"You are correct. I am not human," Homura said as she took a quick glance at Kyoko and Mami who had completely shocked expressions on their faces and both seemed to be at a loss for words. "I am afraid that none of us are… not anymore."

Homura could not bare to look at Madoka just now, not wanting Madoka to see her face when she was like this. She had explained to her what was about to happen while time was stopped, so the pinkette should be able to handle this better than the other girls right now, and Homura did not feel an immediate need to comfort her.

Kyoko finally got herself together enough to step forward and say: "I don't know what kind of trick you're pulling here! But this doesn't mean a damn thing! You are just doing something with your magic!"

Homura held her hand against the wound, feeling a bit dizzy from the blood loss, but knowing it would be fine once she had healed it and closed the wound again. A normal human body would have died instantly from having the heart punctured like this, but of course her body was really just a shell. A doll, or perhaps a puppet, which was controlled by her _true_ self - _her SoulGem_.

"Kyubey!" Homura shouted. "Why don't you show yourself now, and explain things to them. I promise I will not attack you."

Kyubey obeyed instantly, revealing that he was not very far away this entire time, and had practically been hiding in plain sight. He stepped out of the shadows and his little paws carried him to the center of their group where he then sat down on his haunches. His tail waved once, and his placid little smile remained stationed the way it always was on his unchanging face, below two glowing red eyes.

"Kyubey! What is this?!" Mami demanded. "Go ahead and reveal her lies! There is no way you would trick us like that, right?"

"Well, I don't know what you would mean by _trick,_ " Kyubey said, his tail continuing to wave. It felt like there was a certain cruelty in the uncaring tone of his voice. "And there is nothing that needs correcting about what Homura Akemi has said. She did not lie about a single thing."

* * *

Aida reached over to Kaiji's phone as it continued to ring. She looked at it for a moment and then rejected the call. "It is just your brother again," she explained.

They had untied him from the chair a while ago, and brought him over to the computer terminal. Takashi gave him a warning not to try anything stupid now that his hands were free, and assured him that he would not get very far even if he did try.

His phone lay on the desktop and had a metal device about the size of a cigarette pack plugged into its charging port, with another wire coming off of the device and leading into the computer terminal.

"This device is for feeding the hacker false coordinates on your GPS," Aida explained. "Since she likely already saw the text to your wife, I have used this device to alter the code of your GPS and confirm that you are indeed still at the lab. Simply inserting a piece of code directly into your GPS could have achieved this much easier, but I suspect our hacker is not so easily fooled, thus I have made my alteration somewhere that she is far less likely to notice it."

"I still don't know what you expect of me," Kaiji said. "I don't have the kind of relationship with these girls that you seem to think I do. I'm just as much their enemy as anyone else in that lab."

"Considering you have let one go free when you easily could have had her captured… I think you are our best chance," Aida said. "They will remember this deed, and perhaps have some trust in you."

"What makes you so sure Kyoko Sakura plans to go back into the lab at all?"

"Call it a hunch," Takashi said, folding his arms in a way to make it apparent he was getting annoyed by Kaiji's complaints.

"Just think about it," Kaiji said. "Whether I let her go or not, there is no way they would be a hundred percent confident I had not revealed Kay's identity by now. Even _if_ I hadn't, how could they be sure I wouldn't have a change of heart while she is underground and vulnerable?"

"That is why we suspect they may call you first," Aida said. "To see where you stand. When they do, all you need is to assure them her identity is secure, and it is safe for her to visit Homura at her appointment tonight."

Kaiji shook his head. "I still think you are making a pretty big assumption. If Kyoko is smart she wouldn't go anywhere near the lab aga-."

"She will!" Aida shouted, cutting him off. "If she cares for the life of her friend, she most certainly will." A darkness had come over her all of a sudden, and Kaiji wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

Takashi cleared his throat. "The power of a Puella Magi is limited, and needs to be refueled. At least, that's what we understand about it. However, one of those girls running out of magic isn't quite the same as a car running out of gas." Takashi glanced over to Aida for a moment, who had an uncharacteristic disconnection to her all of a sudden. "Something happens to them… Now, keep in mind this is just a theory right now, but we have reasons for coming to it. When the attack on the lab started last night, we assumed it was because Homura had _run out of gas_. Since it turns out she is still alive, we are not really sure where the hell it came from, though we do have a couple of theories."

Takashi removed a cigarette pack from inside his jacket, flipped the top up with his thumb and pulled one out with his mouth. He then exchanged the pack for a Zippo lighter in his coat and lit it before continuing. "Anyway, I don't want too much weighing on your mind while you've still got a job to do. Let's just leave it at this: we believe the whole purpose of Kyoko Sakura infiltrating the lab was to provide Homura with her magic source. She will be back, because she will need to smuggle in more magic. If she doesn't, then Homura Akemi will suffer a fate far worse than death."

* * *

The world became calm once again, and the Clara Dolls relaxed along with it. Okubyou still huddled down in the fetal position with her arms over her head. Nekura sat back with her arms propping herself up as she groaned on and on about how they were all doomed. For most of the others, they just watched Homura with dirty looks, while Homura sat where she was with a lost expression in her eyes.

Homulilly examined the sky and watched the restless stirring of the dark clouds overhead, her stiff shoulders moving along with the movements of her head as she did so.

She raised one of her boney fingers to her face and felt along one of the cracks in her porcelain cheek. "It seems they have removed your SoulGem from its hiding place. Surely you understand the stakes, Homura. How can you risk delaying any longer?"

Homura stared into the coffin, her eyes were wide and perhaps this latest revelation was the last straw which brought her past the point of being able to truly feel the horror of her situation.

True, living in a nightmare was not new to her, as she spent many years living a different kind of nightmare. She relived it over and over and over again, countless times, and after those countless years of struggle she had brought it to an end. However, as a reward she had only been offered the most miniscule taste of salvation. Just as she was barely able to feel it upon her tongue, it was snatched away from her once again. It wasn't fair... after everything she had been through, why was this where she ended up?

She had once again been separated from the girl she loved, and taken to a lonely place underground where she could not even see her. At the end of that road, she became broken. Her arm was torn off, along with the most important portion of her powers. The monster that had done this to her still lingered around, and her friends had no idea of that demon's existence.

Yes… now her friends were in danger as well, and who is to say Madoka would be able to stay strong enough through all of this and resist making a contract? Even if she did resist, how could she have a happy life when everything had fallen apart like this? She would be plagued with the idea that she could put an end to all of it with just a few simple words to the incubator. Kyubey would torment her further by constantly reminding her of this until she finally broke down. The reality is, if she _were_ to make that contract, it would not help anyone, but only bring about greater suffering.

It was too cruel… all of this was just too cruel…

"Homura, look at this door," Homulilly said, placing herself behind Homura so her sickly voice could whisper directly into her ear as they stared into the coffin together. "This door has always been here, waiting for you. It is the destination you were always headed for. However, you had been distracted, because on your path to this end you were tempted by other doorways. Other possibilities with promises of better endings. You have traveled through that endless maze for years, suffering for the sake of achieving that false promise of a brighter future. Look around now. Those doors are gone, and only this one remains. There is no brighter future, and there is no more hope. There is not even false hope to distract you. It has all come down to this, the ultimate end for every Magical Girl… _no_ … the final doorway of all living creatures… for as I have told you before: _All things end in despair_."

"Then what was the point?" Homura asked, her voice now completely toneless.

Yes, what was the point of all of this? If this is how things were meant to end… why did she have to go through so much suffering?

An old memory came back to her. It was from her life before she became a Magical Girl. She was walking home from her first day at Mitakihara Middle School, feeling depressed about how _worthless_ she was, and a voice had spoken to her. It was not much unlike the voice of the witch who currently whispered in her ear. It said: " _Maybe it would be better if you just died…"_

Maybe it really would have been better for her to have died that day. If that were the case, she never would have become friends with Madoka. Being friends with Madoka was the greatest thing to have ever happened to her, but did she really deserve it? Despite all of her fighting, she was unable to do anything for the girl whom she loved. All she wanted was to give Madoka a happier life, but she could not even achieve that. It was all for nothing.

The witch's icy touch upon her shoulder strengthened, and somehow the coldness was mistaken for warmth in her mind. Like the painful kind of warmth that came with the numbing of one's nerves. "It was not all for nothing, Homura," the witch said. "Through all of those repeats, most things would stay the same, but was something not left behind each time?"

Homura's eyes widened.

 _No…_

The witch's wooden jaw fell open, and its hinges began to cackle as she whispered into Homura's ear: "Your idea of a perfect end is a reality that could never be. Yet there is another dream we _can_ achieve. Your human way of thinking doesn't allow you to see the beauty of it, but just try to imagine the world that could be created."

"No… Y-you're talking about…"

"The Witch of Salvation. Yes." Homulilly laughed a dry raspy laughter, and a stale smell came from the creature's throat. "Madoka will make a contract. Sooner or later, she will contract. You know this. Once she does, it is only a matter of time before the savior is born, and she will thus plummet this world into despair - bringing an end to suffering. We could be a part of it... You have dreamed this dream once before… Do you not remember? You were right alongside the girl whom you have vowed your life to when we first shared this vision."

Homura remembered… Walpurgisnacht had made its pass over the city, leaving utter ruin in its wake. The tails of the storm following the massive witch had lingered, resulting in a light rain as Homura and Madoka lay in the wreckage of their destroyed city. All of their friends were already dead: Sayaka had died as a witch; Kyoko by Mami's hand; and Mami by Madoka herself.

" _Why don't the two of us just become witches?"_ Homura had said, feeling her consciousness fading, and her humanity slipping away. " _We could destroy… everything in this horrible world. Everything that has ever made us hate, everything that makes us cry. We could turn it all into ashes until nothing is left... like it was all just a bad dream! Wouldn't that be nice?"_

They stared up into the rain together, their arms crossed over each other, with both of their SoulGems growing darker and darker in the palms of their hands. Madoka laughed ironically and agreed. The idea was bittersweet, and in that moment it certainly did not sound so bad. As things had been, it seemed there was not much point in fighting on… at least, that's how Homura had felt… but Madoka had different plans…

Homulilly whispered in Homura's ear. "She was wrong to do that. It is not her fault, though. I'm sure if she realized the suffering it would cause you, she never would have given you such an impossible task. Don't you agree?"

" _There are terrible, awful things in this world. I know that now,"_ Madoka had said, as Homura begged her to simply use the GriefSeed on herself instead. " _But there are also a lot of things worth protecting too."_

She stared into the coffin, lost in her thoughts, and reliving that painful day. The memory became so vivid inside her head she thought she could actually hear Madoka's voice.

" _Don't let me be stupid!"_ Madoka had cried. " _Don't let Kyubey fool me again!"_

When the memory reached its conclusion, with one final request from that timeline's Madoka, Homura could actually feel the sting on the palm of her hands from the recoil of the gun. She had to pull the trigger and personally end the life of her only friend, so that she would not have to suffer the same fate as Sayaka had in that timeline.

As Homura's consciousness rolled back to this version of reality, she looked down at her palm, which was still softly vibrating as if the memory actually had been lived through just now.

"You have failed, Homura," Homulilly said, now pushing up on her shoulder, forcing her to stand. The dolls began to stir, and mischievous looks came on their faces as some repositioned themselves to surround Homura. Others came right up to her, one grabbing her hand, others finding little fistfulls of her clothing to pull her by as they started to lead her forward. They were becoming more aggressive, and it seemed they were prepared to forcefully throw Homura into the coffin if she tried to resist them anymore.

"Your power allowed you to keep trying, long past the point when this should have happened. That power is gone now. It is time to end this." Homulilly's bony grip tightened on Homura's shoulder as she pushed her forward.

"No… Please… I-I need more time," Homura tried pleading with them, but her resolve was weak.

"We have waited long enough. You have failed through countless timelines and you will continue to fail. Now, end it. The only thing delaying will result in is a risk to your SoulGem. If we are destroyed before getting the chance to hatch and spread our labyrinth through the human world, this truly will have been for nothing. Remember that dream, allow me to be born, and let's crush their world into ashes and erase all of those things that have made you suffer!"

The Claras, along with the witch, continued to pull and push her. She could resist this if she wanted to. She always had before. This was not the first time her SoulGem had darkened, and if the clouds overhead were any clue, her SoulGem had indeed become quite dark. This was not the first time she just wanted to give up. She would normally find the courage to continue, to place her hand on her shield, and go back for another round. Now, even if she could have found that courage she no longer had the option to go back. She could not fight off the despair. As she was pushed closer and closer to the black doorway, she felt as though the coffin was growing larger and larger before her, until she was just a tiny speck at the foot of its threshold.

The Clara Dolls giggled anxiously, eager for their Good-For-Nothing master to take control. Once it was done, they could start snatching souls from the Human world, and feed off of their despair. Homulilly was no ordinary witch, and she had a plan. It was a plan they would not let _Worthless_ know about, because Good-For-Nothing warned them that she might try to prevent their birth if she were to find out.

First, they would trap those humans underground with the witch, and feasting on their souls would grow her power exponentially. Then she would go out, and search. She would go find that delicate pink light which both she and her own seed were drawn to… and then Madoka Kaname, the seed of Kriemhild, would be granted despair until finally making her own contract that would allow the savior to be born.

" _This is really how it ends,"_ Homura thought, oblivious to what these creatures from her own inner world were plotting. " _Madoka… I'm… sorry I couldn't…"_

Homura closed her eyes and let her head hang limp, her body gave up on resisting. This is it… she would just keep her eyes closed and let this creature have its way. What choice did she have? Tears pushed out of her closed eyes as she moved forward another step. She would no longer be able to fight. She just prayed that Madoka would be okay.

" _Madoka… I'm..."_

A whizzing sound pierced through the air. The dolls screamed, and the ones that had been tugging on her let go before retreating. Homura's eyes shot open to find herself able to see nothing but the blackness of the coffin. She was just one step away from entering it, and all it would take was a simple thrust of the witch's boney hand to push her inside.

Homura glanced around herself, finding that the Clara Dolls had all backed away from her. Then she saw what had made that sound. It was an arrow made of black and purple light, sticking out of the ground. It was like a shadow that had taken physical form, a perfect silhouette of a real arrow. It had the shape of feathers at its end, as an arrow would, but there was no distinction between the different parts. It was one solid object made of some black and purple substance which rolled along the object's form. Homura instantly thought of the way corruption rolls around inside of a SoulGem.

" _What is this?" a_ cold voice whispered inside her head. " _Why are we giving up?"_

The voice compelled her. She completely forgot about the dolls, and the witch who stood at her shoulder, as she started looking around for the owner of this voice. She stepped away from the coffin, pushing past the witch and escaping its icy grip, and her eyes scanned the endless hills of red until she saw it.

The figure was made of the same black and purple substance as the arrow it had fired, and shared that quality of a living shadow. It had the shape of a girl. The silhouette of her long black hair blew as if caught in a breeze, with tiny wisps of purplish fog raising away from her like an aura. Her dress was only distinguishable from the rest of her body because her skin favored the purple coloring more than the black, while the dress itself was almost solid black with only slight hints of purple rolling around inside it. It was drawn tight to the figure of her body, leaving her back bare, and covering the front of her body from the chest down until it ended in a long skirt of feathers which blew in sync with the creature's hair.

Two solid white eyes slowly opened on the creature's otherwise blank, purple-black face. It did not have a mouth, but it spoke again. Its voice echoed as though it were coming from the world itself, as if every single one of the red spider lilies that lined the floor of this world were a tiny speaker, all broadcasting the devil's voice. " _Homura. This is not over. Let us suffer a little longer."_

* * *

"K-Kyubey, you're kidding, right?" Mami asked, her lip quivering. "There is no way that could be true."

Homura held her hand against her chest and started healing the hole in her body. A soft light emitted from each side of the wound, as well as from the SoulGem on the back of her hand as she did so.

Kyubey looked over to Mami. "Of course it's true, why would I lie about something like that now?"

"You bastard!" Kyoko shouted. "Why would you lie about it in the first place!"

"You must be mistaken, Kyoko Sakura," Kyubey said. "It is not possible for me to have lied about this before, because I have never addressed it before."

"B-but why would you do that to us in the first place!" Sayaka said with a wavering voice. She still sat on the ground with her legs spread and knees pointing up in the air. The dual shock of seeing Homura's actions, and now hearing these words from Kyubey had her too stunned to move. "Y-you should have told us!"

His glowing red eyes returned to look at Sayaka. "I gladly would have explained if you had simply asked, but you never did. How is it my fault that you did not think to ask more questions about the contract you were signing? Besides, your job as a Magical Girl would be impossible to fulfill effectively with an ordinary human body. If you were to sustain too much damage during a witch fight, your soul would leave your body and you would be dead. This way, it is kept in a nice safe container where it is much easier to protect and keep track of!"

"Shut up!" Sayaka screamed at him, tears streaming down her face. "Who the hell asked you to do that! I didn't want that!"

Kyubey shook his head. "You just don't get it. Here, let me show you." Kyubey's left ear then moved upward until it was horizontal with the ground and became completely stiff. There were surprised gasps from the group of girls, who have never seen this action from him before. The ear then turned and pointed at Sayaka who just stared back at him with wide eyes, getting an eerie feeling from the creature that sat in front of her.

All of a sudden the ear expanded, its pink curves stretching like a group of elongated fingers as it shot toward Sayaka.

In a startled panic, Sayaka tried to scoot away, but they came at her too fast, and wove together in a spiral that dove directly into her SoulGem. Sayaka's mouth fell wide open as it collided, and a muted scream became stuck in her throat as all color drained from her face. The tentacle-like fingers then receded back, and returned to their normal shape to reform Kyubey's ear. Everyone seemed to be in utter shock, lost for words by what they had just seen.

After a moment of choking on air, Sayaka managed to inhale a breath, and as she exhaled again, it dislodged the scream that had been held in her throat. Her voice carried an ear-piercing tone as she bent forward, holding onto her stomach and screaming in agony.

"Miki-san! What's wrong?" Mami said.

"S-Sayaka!" Madoka quickly ran over to her friend.

Sayaka rolled over onto her side. "AH! I-IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP! ITS HURTS!" She continued to scream, the sound of her voice was unlike anything any of them had heard before. Even Kyoko who was rarely affected by anything like this felt horrified from the sound alone, and wanted it to stop.

"What the hell!" Kyoko shouted at Kyubey, her eyes wide and full of disgusted fury. "Cut it out!"

Homura was the only one who seemed unaffected by the sound, and simply stood with her head turned, silently watching the scene through the corner of one dark eye.

"Sayaka!" Madoka said, holding onto her friend's shoulders tightly and crying into the back of her neck. "Sayaka! What's wrong!" she cried, not know what to do as her dear friend screamed on and on in blind agony.

"You little rat!" Kyoko finally scooped Kyubey up by his neck and held him in the air like a rag doll. "What the hell are you doing to her! Stop it right now!"

His placid face remained unaffected by how aggressively Kyoko was handling him, and he calmly explained: "She is feeling the pain of being disemboweled, and having her vital organs ruptured. With an ordinary soul, something like that would instantly put one of you girls out of commission, as you can clearly see with Sayaka right now. When you are contained in a _SoulGem_ , however, you can keep fighting on and actually stand a chance at winning! Then you can always heal your bodies later, so it's not a problem!"

"Not a problem my ass!" Kyoko shouted, and started violently shaking him back and forth. Sayaka continued to scream in torment, despite Madoka's desperate efforts to try and comfort her best friend. "Stop it right now you evil little rat! Just leave her alone!" All of a sudden, a snapping sound could be heard, and Kyubey's body became even more limp with his head hanging loosely because of his broken neck. Kyoko instantly let go, letting his dead body fall to the ground. She stepped back, her eyes wide with the horror of what she had just done.

Sayaka's screaming stopped at least, though she still wept loudly. She remained huddled in the fetal position while Madoka hugged onto her. "Sayaka, it's okay!" Madoka said, fully weeping along with her. "I'm here for you Sayaka! I'm right here!"

"I-it stopped," Sayaka said with a shaky voice. "Th-the pain stopped." Yet, she was still shaken up from the experience, and her body continued to convulse with her sobs while her limbs shook. Madoka rocked her back and forth, trying her best to sooth her dear friend.

Mami's legs had given out on her, and she sat with her knees pointed together. She had already transformed out of her Magical Girl costume, and simply stared at her SoulGem in the palm of her hand. "This is… my… soul?" she said to herself, absently. She seemed to have become disconnected from everything else around her as she continued to stare at the glowing yellow gem in the palm of her hand.

Kyoko had backed several paces away from Kyubey's motionless corps. "I-I killed him. I didn't mean to," she said, showing an absence of resolve which was rather abnormal for the redhead.

"You did not kill him," Homura said, finally breaking her silence. "Look, over there."

Another Kyubey appeared out of the shadows. "Honestly," he said, as he found a new spot to sit down and address the girls. "You humans act so irrationally when it comes to these things. I just showed you the benefits of having your soul contained in a physical form. It's only logical for it to be this way if you want to be effective against witches."

Kyoko gritted her teeth, tightening her hand into a fist as she stepped forward again to symbolically threaten Kyubey with it. "Just what the hell are you anyway!" Kyubey's glowing red eyes simply stared back at her, while the corpse of his disposed body laid nearby.

"He is an alien," Homura began, seeing that Kyubey did not plan on explaining himself. "They are called incubators. The whole reason they do this to us humans is so they can harvest our emotional energy. As odd as it may sound, that is the reality of how they see us. We are nothing more than cattle to these creatures."

Kyoko abruptly turned and raised her fist to Homura instead. "And you! You knew about this all along! Why the hell didn't you say anything!?"

Homura's head turned so she could make direct eye contact with Kyoko. "Even if I tried, would you have believed me without first seeing this for yourself?"

Kyoko gritted her teeth in frustration, knowing that she could not deny the truth in Homura's words.

"What Homura Akemi has just said could be considered an exaggeration." Kyubey started. "It's true, our interest in this planet is for the sake of harvesting energy from its human population. However, we actually treat you humans _far_ better than you treat _your_ livestock!"

Suddenly there was a loud bang, and the new Kyubey's body fell limp with a red hole in the center of his head. Homura stood with her arm outstretched, holding a pistol with a wisp of smoke rising from its barrel. "That's enough out of you," she said with her dry tone, as she lowered the gun and then returned it under her shield.

Homura looked amongst all the girls. Kyoko managed to maintain her hard and confident face. Even when faced with unthinkable horrors, Kyoko was never one to show weakness, and she always stayed strong. Homura had always admired her for that. Although, there was some concern in the red-head's eyes as she watched Sayaka, who still had not regained her composure as Madoka continued to try to comfort her. "H-hey. So's the rookie okay?" Kyoko asked cautiously, with a low voice, but when she did not get a response from the girls who probably had not heard her, she just let her eyes sink away as her mind ran through what had just happened.

Homura's eyes shifted over to Mami – the girl who would carry herself as the cool and confident senpai. Right now, she looked rather pitiful. In a matter of moments her entire worldview had been shattered; her view of herself as the responsible leader for a just cause; her trust in Kyubey, who had put her on her mission; and her excitement of having a Kohai to shape into another fighter for the justice she had so much faith in. It was all taken from her, and now she had nothing. She was once again the lonely abandoned orphan girl. She did not possess Kyoko's mental fortitude, and she would _not_ be able to deal with it.

Homura walked over to her. "Mami Tomoe," she said, looking down on her through the bottoms of her eyes. Mami just continued to watch the glow of her SoulGem with that defeated look in her eyes. She probably didn't notice it herself, but Homura could see the gem slowly becoming darker. "That posture does not suit you, Tomoe. Stand up."

Mami's lips curved up ironically. "Looks like you are right. My ideas of justice really were just a sham after all… weren't they? I guess I really was wasting my time with all of that..."

Homura's expression remained hard. "Stop this foolishness. I have never thought that of you."

Mami's smile became sadder. "You know, behind it all you really are a kind person, Homura. You don't have to lie though, I've seen it in you all along. Despite trying to be nice to my face, you always shook your head at me behind my back. I never really minded though, because I always knew that I was in the right. I always held myself so far above you… but now… now..." A tear rolled down her cheek. "A-at least you managed to stop Madoka from contracting. At least that is one life I didn't get a chance to ruin."

Homura glanced over her shoulder to Madoka; the girl she loved. It seemed she had managed to get Sayaka calm again. As bad as this moment was, so far this was the best outcome Homura had ever reached in any timeline. They were all alive, and they were all together. It was not enough, though. This moment was crucial, and if she were ever going to have a chance at saving them, this is when everything would have to be perfect. She could not fail.

"You see now why I did not want Madoka to contract. I suppose it is true that I am relieved I managed to at least spare her from this fate." She looked back to Mami. "Still… I don't understand. Why are you saying justice is no longer worth fighting for?"

Mami's head raised up. She did not seem to know what to say, but she heard the hopeful tone in Homura's voice and her body responded to it.

Homura turned away, and started walking toward the north end of the bridge which looked out over the city. "Everyone. Look here."

Kyoko remained where she was, standing with folded arms, but raised an eyebrow in Homura's direction. Sayaka and Madoka's heads both lifted up so they could look as well.

"We have been lied to," Homura said. "We have been abused, and our hopes and dreams have been taken advantage of. Still… those dreams are our dreams, they are something that belong to us, and as long as they are held dear to our hearts they can never truly be taken from us.

"When we made our contracts, there is something that we wanted. Yet, there is something else we understood. I think I am not alone in this. When I made my contract I did not just _want_ something… I _believed_ in something..." She met Madoka's eyes, and as they took in each other's expressions, they both managed to smile. "Hope," Homura said quietly, almost as if she was whispering it to Madoka. Then she raised her head up and said it again, louder, so the rest could hear: "Hope; and not just for ourselves.

"When we made our contracts, we understood that we would be given the power to protect others. That has not changed. When given this task, did it sound like a chore? Like a price that had to be paid? I think any Magical Girl who would say that was indeed the case would be lying. Because anyone who doesn't believe in hope, and feels that it is not worth fighting for, would not have what it takes to be a Magical Girl in the first place."

The city stood at her back. Its tall dark spires raised into the night sky below a waning moon and nestled in a sea of starlight. Homura gestured her arms across the expansive cityscape. "This is Mitakihara. This is our territory. Those streets belong to us. The people who occupy those streets have hopes and dreams of their own, and there exist evil witches who wish to rob them of that, just as the incubator would rob us of ours. We won't allow that to happen, though. Because we are Magical Girls, and we fight for justice." Homura made direct eye contact with Mami. "Because we believe in hope."

Mami's demeanor slowly became more and more lively through Homura's speech. She looked down at the SoulGem in her hand, uncertainly for a moment, then looked back to Homura and managed to smile as she gave her a nod.

Kyoko bent down as she let out a brief but exaggerated laugh. Then she raised back up, not quite able to knock the grin off her face. "Haha, oh man that's great. It's not every day ya' get to hear Miss Tall-Dark-and-Gloomy over here cheese it up like that."

Sayaka had calmed down, and Madoka, her hand still on Sayaka's shoulder, looked at her childhood friend to make sure she really was alright. Sayaka's eyes were a bit worn and tired, but her cheek managed to lift up in a half-smile. "Thank you Madoka. I'm okay now."

Madoka nodded with a smile, then let her hand fall away from Sayaka's shoulder as she stood. Madoka looked at Homura for a moment, then glanced back down to Sayaka. When Sayaka shrugged her shoulders, a bright smile came over Madoka's face and she then ran over to the girl she loved, practically tackling her as she jumped into her arms.

Homura caught her, lifting her off the ground for just a moment as their lips connected very briefly and then setting her back down again. Homura's hand moved a strand of pink hair off of the shorter girl's face as she looked deeply into her eyes. "I am so sorry for what had to happen tonight," Homura said to her.

Madoka's smile faded somewhat. It was true that it was a horrific thing that had happened, and she could not fully deny that reality. Yet, somehow the look in Homura's eyes inspired her. Despite the darkness that surrounded them, Homura seemed hopeful, and that was enough to inspire hope in Madoka as well. She raised herself onto her toes, and their lips touched together once again.

Mami folded her arms, and grinned at the two of them as she let her eyes sink back over to the cityscape… Mitakihara – her city.

Kyoko palmed her face. "Aw geez, get a damn room you two," she said as she rolled her eyes. As her sight came around, it ended up landing on Sayaka. She was not expecting to find Sayaka staring at her, and when their eyes met they became locked together. They each blushed, before abruptly clicking their teeth (in perfect sync with each other) and turning their heads away.

"Kyoko," Mami asked, "do you think you will be staying in Mitakihara?"

Kyoko shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno. Maybe for a little while at least. If I can say anything about this stupid town, it has at least kept me occupied." She tried to sneak her eyes over to Sayaka once again, and when their eyes once again ended up meeting, they once again quickly turned away from each other in perfect sync, each of them blushing despite letting out an audible " _Hmph!"_

Mami let a hand come up to her chin as she pondered this interaction between them, thinking these two girls were her Kohai.

The five girls eventually ended up standing at the railing of the bridge, looking out over the city together as a cool and gentle wind blew. Homura had her arm around Madoka, and Mami stood with her two Kohai; The rookie Magical Girl, Sayaka, and her lost friend Kyoko who had finally come back to her.

Homura did not tell them about Walpurgisnacht yet, but she would soon. The war was not over, but on this night at least a battle had been won. She leaned forward to glance over to Sayaka, who still had that tired look in her eyes. Homura had managed to make Mami okay with the idea of SoulGems, but she knew that Sayaka would be a different story. And no matter what happened, she knew that she could not let Mami know the even deeper truth about SoulGems, and where witches come from.

They were still a long way from Walpurgisnacht, and Homura still had plenty of preparations to make. The upcoming battle may not even be winnable, she realized, not even with the entire team assembled, but at least she had one thing…

… she had _hope_.

* * *

"Who… are you?" Homura asked, watching the devil who stood upon a far-away hill. The distance between them, and the endless red fields surrounding them made this dark being appear rather small by comparison. Yet, when the devil spoke, she seemed larger than anything. Her voice echoed as if being spoken by the world itself, and everything reacted to her: the flowers; the clouds; the wind. Even the Claras, out of respect for her presence, bowed their heads and ceased with their giggling and chattering, though a quick look at any one of their faces would clearly show the disdain they felt for the beast.

The solid white eyes, like two stars on her dark face, slanted downward until Homura could imagine the expression was meant to scold her. " _Why are we giving up?"_ the devil asked once again, impatiently.

Homura's eyes fell to the ground, not sure what to say. "I… just don't know if I can do it," she admitted, shamefully. "No matter how much I try, things just always fall apart… and now…" Her hand tightened on the shoulder of her missing arm. "Now… I can't even…"

Homulilly's hand carefully found itself on top of Homura's, and squeezed as if trying to console her, but the coldness it emitted simply felt uncomfortable. "Pay no mind to that devil, Homura," the witch whispered to her. "And this creature surely _is_ a devil, for she only wishes to promote false hopes and lead you astray. Even if any hope _were_ to remain, it would only be there to extend your suffering."

" _Yet we have already spent years suffering,"_ the devil said. " _What is a little more?"_

"You see how easily she admits it?" the witch said, now pushing on Homura. Ibari and Reiketsu then walked over and started pushing on the back of her legs as well. "Pay no mind to that _thing_ , Homura. For she is the one who has allowed you to suffer so long."

Manuke, now emboldened by her master, stuck her tongue out and pulled down on her eyelid, making an obscene gesture at the devil. Several of the other dolls, now seeing this, soon joined in on the fun, sticking out their tongues and cursing at the demon who stood on the hill.

Usotsuki then quickly scampered over and forcefully grabbed at Homura's skirt with her small hands to assist in forcing her along. The liar's face looked up at her with a crooked grin. "Nothin' to worry about, Worthless! It'll be really nice in there! It really will!" Her mouth opened as her eyes rolled back and she started to laugh.

"W-wait…" Homura said, trying to look back over her shoulder to see the devil, as the witch and her minions attempted to guide her back to her coffin. "Your name!" Homura called. "I-I need to know-" She saw the devil's arms moving. Then, it was holding something. One dark hand drew back, and Homura saw a black arrow form against the bowstring.

" _My name?"_

The black arrow suddenly whizzed across the world, leaving a soft trail of purple dust as it flew, before it slammed into the ground at Usotsuki's heels with enough force to create a shockwave which momentarily threw her off balance, and the petals of the surrounding spider lillies danced as if hit by a sudden gust of wind. Usotsuki let out a terrified screech, then let go of Homura and retreated to the other dolls, who quickly stopped with their mocking gazes and went back to being more respectful of the devil's presence.

Yet Ibari was prideful, and stepped forward in defiance of this display of power. She spun her needle around and pointed it at the devil. "Attack then, beast!" When the devil drew back on the bow, and formed another arrow, Ibari quickly turned on her heels and instantly ran back to the rest of the dolls. The devil seemed satisfied, and lowered her bow once again.

" _This is a new future," the devil said_. " _After years of suffering, only to see the same end time and time again, at last a new path opens to us. Why would we throw it away now?"_

"Because all that this path will offer is more of your false hope," the witch explained once again. She then leaned her head in so her motionless mouth could again speak directly into Homura's ear. "You have suffered enough. Please, just let it end. It will only be a matter of time before your SoulGem's corruption is outside of your control either way. You can not hold on like this, Homura. You know you cannot."

Beneath the witch's icy cold hand, Homura's own hand tightened. _It was true.._. If her situation was impossible before, it was even more so now. A new future had been opened, but she was coming to realize it only opened to a dead-end. If she could run back to the loop, and continue fighting for Madoka, she would, but she could not and now only despair lay in wait for her.

"Furthermore," the witch whispered to her. "Do not forget the drug that they will use on you. What if they trick you into giving away your friends' location? Or, what if your friends come back to the lab only to be caught off-guard by that other Magical Girl? Neither of these things have a possibility of happening if you simply become a witch. Also, if you give me control there is something else we do: we can take revenge on all of those people who have hurt you, including the Magical Girl who has broken you. Do you not want that?"

That was also true. She supposed she would not mind their deaths. After everything they had done to her, they deserved it. Especially Dr. Endou, and that daughter of his who was every bit as cruel as her father… yes, turning into a witch meant that they would all die...

The dark thought made Homura's lips curve up.

There was something macabrely poetic about it. They would all be trapped just as she had been, in the same underground place where they had forced her to stay. That same place where she had been experimented on and treated like an animal, all the while being kept away from the girl who she loved. A death by a witch's influence meant those people would also get to feel the kind of hopeless despair that she had felt. It was not the end she had wanted, but there was still a bitter sweetness to it which she had remembered wishing for once before.

With that thought, she felt ready to turn and face the darkness inside the coffin, and she no longer even needed the witch's hand to guide her there. Its words had been enough. Things were over for her. Although this is not the ending she wanted, at least she would get one small victory at the end, and seek retribution on the people who have taken the ending that she _did_ want away from her.

" _Do you think that is what 'she' would want?"_ the devil asked, pulling Homura away from the thought.

Homura had started to turn towards the coffin, but she stopped, and turned to face the devil once again.

" _Do not lose sight of what is truly important,"_ the devil went on. " _Even if she is not physically by your side, we are still connected to her, and she would never forgive you for accepting such a dark path."_

Homura's eyes sunk down guiltily, and her lips moved to whisper the name which the devil referred to. "Madoka…"

" _Even if you cannot touch her, and hold her in your arms. Taking this path means you would not be worthy of her, and then we truly will have lost."_

"But, what other path is there?" Homura asked. "I don't know if I can hold on in that place… even if I try… it's only a matter of time before-"

" _Did you forget so easily?"_ the devil asked. " _The day our mission had truly started?"_

Homura instantly knew what she was talking about. That day, staring up at the rain with Madoka by her side. She was sure that their lives were over and that they would simply turn into witches together. That was also the first time Homura had managed to call Madoka by her first name, and probably when she first realized that she really was in love.

" _She used the GriefSeed on you. She wanted_ you _to fight on. She wanted_ you _to protect her. Since that day, you have survived against impossible odds, and lived a life that would have broken down most others."_

"Driven on by false hope," the witch added, "a promise of a dream that could never-" She clearly had more to say, but was drowned out by the overpowering voice of the devil.

" _False or not, hope is a powerful force. Yet there is a power on your side even greater than hope; and more absolute than despair."_

Homura watched the devil as it stood on its hill. Homura could envision wings were growing from its back, and with them the devil who seemed rather small due to the illusion of distance, seemed to grow bigger and bigger until Homura imagined that it could eventually take over the entire world. "Y-your name," Homura said, realizing that she still did not know it. "What is…"

The white eyes which were once like stars, grew brighter until they were more like suns and difficult to look directly into. " _You do not need to know my name," said the devil. "Only what I stand for. I stand for the most powerful force which exists in this world. I stand for love."_

Homura could no longer hear the witch's voice, and she took no notice of the Claras. "Even so… what can I do? I'm trapped, a-and there is no way for me to turn back! Before, if things went wrong, I could always reset the timeline and-"

" _Fool!"_ The angered voice roared through the world and shook the ground, even the dark clouds overhead spiraled in response to the devil. " _Have you become so reliant on one solution that you can see no other path? Thinking in absolutes is what leads one to despair. That is how you have become blinded into seeing only one door, when really there are more doors which you have simply not thought to look for."_

The devil's hand raised, and pointed forward. Homura turned around. The black door which the Clara's had brought over in the form of a coffin was still there, but now more doors stood around it. All were of different colors and sizes, scattered about in a disorganized manner. As she looked further, there were clusters of them all throughout the world which until now was only occupied by the red spider lilies. While none of these doors came close to matching the magnitude of the door of despair, at least they were there.

Then, she noticed one door which actually _was_ able to compare to it. Just like that black doorway, this other door was so big it transcended Homura's perception of actually being able to understand its size. There was a key difference between the two of them, however. The door of despair was intimidating and felt as if it wanted to crush her underneath its overwhelming presence. It wanted to destroy her will to carry on.

This new door felt far more inviting, like it wanted to encourage her. Its size made her feel safe, like it could protect her and keep her from these desperate spiteful creatures which inhabited her inner world, who told her that she was _Worthless_ and tried to convince her that she should just die.

It creaked open, and she put up a hand to shield her eyes as she stared into its incredible pink light. As that light fell upon her skin she was simply overcome with warmth. The witch and its familiars - the dolls which acted as tools for her despair - were just vague shadows beneath this pink light and she no longer heard their cruel voices or worried about the disgusted looks they would give her.

When the door was fully open, Homura was greeted by a soft smiling face which held a hand out to her. It was the face she had always fought for, and she would sacrifice anything if it meant she could see it smile.

Maybe all things do end in despair, and maybe that was the road she would eventually face, but for now she had something worth fighting for, and she would keep fighting. She would sacrifice anything if it meant that beautiful face could keep on smiling.

She stepped forward with her hand outstretched, wishing to meet with her. Madoka was not here, but then again maybe she was, and maybe on some deeper level this image of Madoka which stood beyond the pink light actually was the real thing. As the devil had said, they were connected. They were connected by that powerful emotion of love.

For ordinary humans, emotions are but abstract concepts. For Magical Girls, it is a force that can be harnessed and in enough of a concentration it can even overcome fate. What kept Homura going was far more powerful than hope, and more absolute than despair.

Hope can be crushed, just as despair can be overcome. Love is something that can never be diminished, and in the hands of a Magical Girl, it is powerful enough to move worlds.

* * *

She started to have a better dream. She could feel warmth in her hands. She could feel Madoka's touch, and she longed for the day when she would take her fully back into her embrace.

Then the slow constant beeping returned.

 _Beep... beep... beep... beep..._

She felt the warmth slipping away, though she tried to hang on to it. She wanted to stay with this dream, and stay with her love, but reality started to come back. She could hear hushed voices, and sounds of movement. Papers being shuffled, metal scraping against metal, footsteps, keys being pressed, more beeping.

A moment ago she thought she could feel the softness of Madoka's lips against her own, but as her mouth closed down she only tasted plastic. She shook her head, and tried to spit it out. She started coughing.

" _She's waking up,"_ said a female voice. Then the hushed whispering throughout the room became more present, and she could feel the movements of the people who surrounded her closing in.

Surrounding her… she was surrounded!

She tried to move her hand but it was tied down at her side, and she did not have enough strength to try and pull it free. Her feet too. She tried to kick her legs, but only managed to shake the table she was laid upon. Her head thrashed to the side, but even there she had a strap around her neck, holding her down.

"Relax, Miss Akemi. You are safe. Stay calm," said a voice which she did not recognize.

The rate of the beeping increased with the beating of her heart. She screamed, but it was muffled by the tube that was stuck in her mouth. A hand grabbed onto her face, forced her head to stay still, and also kept the tube in place as she tried to force it out with her tongue.

The pain became more present. She could feel her damaged body: her chest hurt when she would move it, and there was a constant throbbing coming from her missing arm which pulsed through her entire body and made her feel sick.

She continued to scream. She forced her eyes opened, and the light hurt her dilated pupils as she tried to look around. There were white faces all around her, standing over her, holding her down, touching her.

She looked down at her body as she continued trying in vain to pull away. There was a sheet over the lower part of her body, but beneath it she felt exposed. Her chest was wrapped in bandages but otherwise uncovered, and at the very center a dark blot of red bled through. Her eyes moved over to her missing arm, and the stump was also tightly wrapped in bandages.

"I told you she was in no condition to be woken," said another voice.

Homura's eyes helplessly moved around in the chaotic situation she found herself at the center of. She felt dizzy, wanting to vomit, and she was worried she might pass out again.

She felt for her magic. She could fight her way out of this if she could just get her hand free… her magic would help with that. She did not have access to her shield space, or her ability to stop time, but she could still use raw magical energy as a weapon. They were just ordinary humans; she was sure she could still do this if she could just get herself free.

She reached for her magic but she could not feel it. Rather, she felt its presence but she did not have that direct connection to it that she would need to harness its power. Her breathing remained heavy, though she stopped thrashing her body around, and she simply searched.

" _Where is it?"_ she thought as her eyes searched all around.

Her eyes ended up falling on Kotaro, who stood at the left side of a metal door, with another guard on the right. There was a bandage over his nose. His hat was lowered enough to cast a shadow over his eyes, and she could see the intensity in them. She could see his disgust, and his desire to help her. There was nothing he could do for her, however, and they both knew it.

One of the doctors forced her right eye fully open with his index finger and shone a flashlight into it, momentarily blinding her in that eye. Then his gloved hand moved to her other eye to do the same. Through the process, she did not take her eyes off of Kotaro, who likewise held his eye contact with her. Somehow, that helped her. He could not do anything for her, but just the knowledge she had at least one friend nearby calmed her down somewhat. Because in this horrible situation, at least she was not alone.

"What is her condition?" said a harsh, monotone voice, and as soon as Homura heard it her eyes widened and she failed to see Kotaro any longer. She forced her head to the side and looked past the flashlight which was impairing her vision.

"She is stable," said the doctor with the flashlight as he took his hands off of her face. "However, I think it would be better to reinduce the coma. I can only imagine the pain she-"

"No," Dr. Endou said, as he stepped forward. Homura's eyes locked onto him. This was her first time ever seeing him, but there is no way she could forget that voice. He was large, with broad shoulders and a square face which held a hard and callous expression. Much like his daughter, that face lacked any level of human kindness.

Everyone who worked for this lab was her enemy; everyone who knew she was down here and did nothing to try to help her; everyone who did not care that she was an innocent person who was imprisoned and experimented on against her will: she hated all of them. This man, however, was not like the others and Homura would gladly kill him right here and now if she had the ability to. He was not even human, and deserved to die.

"She is not an ordinary patient. Her healing factor will sustain her," Endou explained to the other doctors, "and I have questions that she needs to answer. I will remind you all that our lives may be in danger at this very moment. We do not know what she is capable of, and we need to figure out if a similar attack will happen." There was some hushed whispering at that revelation. "Remove the respirator," Endou commanded one of the doctors as he stood over her and stared down at her.

Homura's eyes were hateful as they stayed locked on the face of her enemy. That cold emotionless face that belonged to the sadistic voice which had tormented her from over the intercom these last weeks.

Endou walked around her hospital bed, turning away from her gaze, as the other doctor finished removing the respirator from her mouth. Endou picked up a metal dish from a table set at the foot of her bed, and tilted it so that she could see inside. Homura's hateful expression became somewhat more subdued when she saw what was inside…

"First," Dr. Endou said, "you can tell us what this is."

A circle of blood surrounded the jewel, and despite the angle of the pan the blood would not flow over to it and touch its base, as if a magnetic field was keeping such contaminations away. There was only one contamination that she really had to worry about, though, and that was the dark fog which rolled around inside the thing which acted as the container for her soul.

* * *

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 **-Atomyst**


	25. Chapter 25

"You can start by telling us what this is," Dr. Endou said, showing Homura the gem which they had removed from just below the center of her ribcage.

Homura felt ill from the condition of her body. Whatever drugs they had used to keep her unconscious during the operation left a dull buzz in her head. Her eyes glanced back to the straps around her hand and ankles, and she pulled at them without doing any good.

Endou set the dish containing her SoulGem back down, then took a few heavy steps to stand over her. Her eyes looked back up at him, scornfully, but her lips remained closed. "I am sure we can find ways of making you talk. Two of our staff are dead, another is missing, and one is in a coma. We have tried to treat you civilly, but now that it is clear how dangerous you are, we are willing to take more extreme measures. Now, will you co-operate? Or do you still insist on forcing our hands?"

Homura continued staring back at him with that hateful expression. Her breathing unsteady. Her fist tightened and pulled at the strap which kept her arm down. "What kind of people are you?" she said, her voice flat and raspy, matching the poor condition of her body. "You do all of this to keep down one defenseless girl?"

"I am sure you are anything but defenseless," Dr. Endou said. "Now, that crystal. What is it?"

Her lip rose, showing a barred tooth. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't try to tell me you don't know what it is." Endou's voice remained slow and monotonous as it always had. "We retrieved it from inside your body."

"Oh? Is that where I left it?" she quipped back through her teeth.

Suddenly, Endou's hand reached over her and slammed down, caging her under his arm as his face came closer to hers. His voice finally broke away from the dull tone, showing real emotion as he yelled: "Tell me what it is!"

Homura was startled at first, and taken aback by how blatantly hostile he had become. She had tried to flinch away, but the strap around her neck prevented any significant motion from her. "F-Fuck you!" She shouted right back in his face. She wasn't paying any attention to the other doctors in the room, but they were likely surprised by his actions as well.

Endou's face was dark, yet his tone became controlled once again. "Think of the situation you're in. Resisting is pointless. Just answer the question." Something slowly changed in his eyes, and for a moment Homura felt like he was actually pleading with her. "Tell me." With everything that happened, why was he so focused just on the SoulGem?

Her eyes drifted past him. Her vision temporarily blurred from switching focus - another symptom of her frail state - but she refocused on a ghostly figure standing against the back corner of the room, out of the way of all the doctors. They made eye contact, and Tsarina's eyebrows lowered into a scowl. Her lips moved, " _Remember, you are not to say anything about me."_

Endou stood up straight, and looked to the back corner where Tsarina stood, taking a queue from Homura's sudden focus in that direction. He could not see her, and after a moment he looked back to Homura. "Well? Are you going to talk, or do we have to incorporate other methods?"

"Why are you so focused on that gem?" Homura asked.

"It came from inside your body, and whatever it is, it is not natural. I suspect It has something to do with your unusual abilities."

"No… There is another reason you want to know…" her eyes met his, and his face locked into an unreadable expression. "Oh… I see…" Homura spoke slowly, allowing a smile to force itself onto her face. It did not quite have the desired effect as Endou's face remained unchanged. Tsarina, on the other hand, stirred in her position against the back corner.

"What?" Endou pressed on.

Homura's eyesight went back to Tsarina, who got a hint that Homura was up to something, and the discomfort was clear from the way her folded arms shuffled within each other.

She lost that controlled look quite easily. Had she expected Homura would automatically do everything she told her to? _That fool_ , Homura thought, she had already taken everything she possibly could. Not just preventing her escape, but also causing her such a grievous injury. She had nothing left to lose, and that girl therefore had nothing to hold against her. Why should she do anything she asked?

"I know what this is about," Homura said while staring directly at Tsarina, challenging her. "This is about your daughter." Her eyes shot back to Endou's and she smiled wickedly. "Isn't it?"

Dr. Endou was forced away from his posturing, once again breaking into a deeply concerned expression. _Bullseye_ , Homura thought.

" _What are you doing?"_ Tsarina's voice echoed in her head. " _Stop it!"_

"When did you realize?" Homura mused out loud, ignoring the other Magical Girl. She did not think he knew before, otherwise his treatment of her may have been much different over these last weeks. No, this was a new revelation for him. He must have seen Tsarina's SoulGem at some point and recognised Homura's as the same thing. Now the question was, how could she use this to her advantage?

"Realize what?" Endou pressed on.

Homura let out a raspy laugh. "That your daughter who went missing is just like me." She forced her head forward as much as she could, her eyes blazing as she spoke through her bared teeth. " _Tsarina_ Endou."

Dr. Endou's face physically paled when he heard his daughter's name spoken, and seemed at a loss for words himself. The other doctors in the room looked amongst each other, not sure what they were witnessing.

Tsarina looked like she wanted to leap from her place in the corner of the room, as if it were a struggle to hold herself back. " _Shut up! I'm not ready yet! I swear to god if you don't shut up I'll rip out your tongue!"_

"How do you know that name?" Endou demanded.

"That's my secret," Homura said. She let her head rest back against the table, realizing even something as simple as keeping her head up was tiring for her thanks to the frail state she was in. "But I _could_ tell you, I suppose."

"You think you're being clever, don't you?" Endou said, darkening his tone.

"Now what is that supposed to mean?"

"You were with Kaiji during the attack, you learned that name from him."

Homura smiled. "Is that what you think?"

"It's no secret how manipulative you can be. I don't know what you are trying to accomplish with this, but it won't work."

He doesn't actually think that, Homura thought. It was quite clear from the look on his face. He must have simply been trying to hide this truth from the other doctors for some reason. Why would that be, though?

"Would it surprise you to find out she is actually in the lab right now?" Homura asked, watching his face. Yes, that _would_ surprise him.

Tsarina abruptly retreated from her place in the corner. Everyone was so focused on Homura they did not see the scalpel disappear from the operating table. Homura watched her as she marched across the room and then held the scalpel up to Kotaro's neck. Her eyes were frantic. Her lips moved with her voice being heard only by Homura.

" _This is your friend, isn't it? And don't think I can't find those other Magical Girls! That girlfriend of yours too - is Madoka her name? I do not know where she lives but I did follow Kyoko Sakura back to the apartment where your little group likes to gather. I'm sure I will have no problem finding Madoka if I decide to put the time in and wait for her there. So I suggest you learn your place!"_

Homura just stared at her, not sure what to do. Indeed, she did not want to see any harm come to Kotaro but the threat against Madoka scared her far more. She took a very small comfort in the fact that Kyubey at least had some part in dictating Tsarina's actions. If he thought she might kill Madoka without letting her make a contract then surely he would warn the others of her and put a stop to it. Right?

Laying on this table, barely clothed, with a broken body and stripped of her abilities; not even with her own soul in her possession. She was powerless. It might be possible to work the angle with Madoka to force Kyubey to warn the others of Tsarina's presence, but Homura cared for Madoka far too much to put her in danger and use her as a pawn in that way. As a means to an end she often moved the other members of her team as chess pieces, but not Madoka. Never Madoka.

"You're right," Homura said slowly to Endou, "I lied."

Tsarina still held the scalpel to Kotaro's neck, her lips were tight together with a bratty look in her eyes. Yet, she seemed appeased, and lowered the scalpel from his neck. " _That's better,"_ she said.

From Kotaro's point of view it probably seemed as though Homura were staring at him, for he could not see the ghostly figure standing right next to him. Then Homura saw one of his hands rub the other, as if he were cold, and she wondered… could he _feel_ her?

Right now Homura was all alone in this place, she did not have contact with her friends, but she _did_ have him. How far would he be willing to go for her, though? And how much could he actually accomplish? She did not know, but she figured she ought to try giving him a message. He was all she had.

"You think you're safe?" Homura said to Tsarina, though to everyone else it would seem she were speaking to Kotaro. "Just because I am like this I won't find a way to get you?"

Tsarina smirked, but then her eyes became more inquisitive as she looked back and forth from Homura to Kotaro.

Kotaro raised an eyebrow, slipping into the character of someone who did not care for her, since everyone in the room was now paying attention to him. "You just never stop, do you?" he asked with an uncaring voice.

"Well, just watch your back," Homura said with a menacing grin, hoping that message would be enough. "We still got a score to settle." The look in his eyes signaled that he did indeed take her seriously, and must have understood she was warning him that he might be in danger.

Endou abruptly turned away, and spoke as if he were addressing the other doctors. "She is being uncommunicative, and attempting to distract us. It is of great importance we learn how her powers work." He walked over to a cabinet on the other side of the operating room, opened a drawer and pulled out a small metal case. He set it down on a the steel table where Homura's SoulGem was kept, where Tsarina had swiped the scalpel from.

Before the lid of the container was opened, Homura read a word printed in Romaji lettering on the side of it: Galazadrine.

Endou removed a vial along with a syringe, set them next to the case and then closed it.

"What is that?" Homura demanded, although she already knew the answer. Kaiji had told her all about the drug they had laced her food with… If it were to be injected directly into her, how much more potent would it be? "What is that!?" she shouted again as Endou stabbed the needle through the lid of the vial and pulled the tab up on the syringe to begin filling it.

"Sir," one of the doctors spoke up, "we do not know how that might interact with the sedatives. They have not completely run their course through her system yet."

"The risks are minimal," Endou said, removing the needle and then pushing the tab down to allow some of the liquid to come out and clear the air bubbles. "Besides, the well-being of our test subject may be valuable to us, but that is still not more valuable than the lives of everyone in this lab. We do not know the extent of her powers. She just said herself we are not safe. Underestimating her is what has lead us to four casualties already. This will keep her subdued, and under our control. I think the choice is clear what we must do."

"Even so," the other doctor butted in, "I think something like this should require clearance from-"

"There is no time," Endou insisted, as he walked around to the other side of Homura's bed, so he would have easier access to her good arm. "Don't worry, if things go poorly I will take responsibility for it. There are many witnesses in this room that it was my decision alone." And with that he gripped her upper arm with his free hand and started bringing the needle down to meet it.

"Stop! Keep that away from me!" she screamed, thrashing around as much as she could. "Please stop! Someone stop him! Help me!" Her eyes darted all around, her eyes landing on white faces with surgical masks which held no hint of offering her assistance. Her eyes landed on another white face which let it's blue lips perk up in amusement. The needle came closer. "Stop!"

"Sir!" Kotaro shouted. He quickly stepped forward, unknowingly missing the razor edge of Tsarina's scalpel by just inches. He grabbed onto Endou's arm and held it back.

Endou turned towards him with a hard expression on his face, and promptly shook Kotaro's hand away. Kotaro was a man of average height, but standing by Dr. Endou who was quite large in stature he somehow seemed rather small in comparison.

"Sakazaki! What do you think you're doing?"

"Sorry boss, I know it is not my place, but if that is Galazadrine, then Dr. Kaiji did expressly state it should not be mixed with her sedatives. Perhaps it would be best to wait for him? Aside from Dr. Kaiji, only myself and Furuhata were around for the…" He raised an eyebrow at Homura, "What exactly did you call it? A dimensional shift?"

That term caused some hushed murmuring from the doctors.

Dimensional shift? What the hell was he talking about? Then she saw the glint in his eyes and understood.

"Anyway," Kotaro continued, "The point is, I can guarantee you are overestimating her. I saw what she is capable of first hand, and she is not as powerful as you think. That thing she unleashed on the lab she actually had no control over. Besides that..." he pointed at her missing arm, "...that device she used to summon it is now gone."

"You are right, it is not your place, Sakazaki, and we do not know if the shield is the key to her power or not."

"Then why do you think she went ahead and got rid of it?" Kotaro grinned. Then he looked directly at Homura, "Let me take a few guesses here. Before getting on the elevator, you were rather adamant about having Dr. Kaiji convince the soldiers up top to stand down before you got there. That's because you knew they would be too much for you to handle. Right? Oh, by the way doctors, I think your theory that she simply teleports is wrong."

"This is ludacris," Endou interrupted, when he noticed how keenly the other doctors were now paying attention to Kotaro, "Sakazaki, back to your post."

Kotaro continued anyway: "It's more like, she can distort space. Or to put it more specifically, she can instantly change the positioning and affect things around her, but there's a limit to it. She can only do so many different things at once. I could tell this was the case when she was fighting those monsters.

"Taking out a handful of guards is nothing for her. Taking on that small army waiting for her at the top of the elevator, on the other hand? Na, I don't think she had the power to do all that." He looked directly at her and grinned. "Isn't that right? Miss Akemi?"

 _Amazing,_ Homura thought, as she took note of how quickly he managed to grab the room's attention and completely shift the mood of the conversation. She did have a good opinion of him already, but she had underestimated just how clever he could be.

"That is an interesting _theory_ ," Endou said, patiently, "you can put it in your report, but for now we have no idea if she truly is dangerous or not."

"Are you kidding me?" Kotaro said, looking at Endou with a raised eyebrow. "Take a good look at her; this kid's beat. Why else would she try messing with your head on some fake story about your daughter? That's a desperate move if I ever saw one. If she had any power whatsoever right now, she would never bother resorting to something like that."

Endou opened his mouth to argue the point, but one of the other doctors finally spoke up to protest. "He is right sir, there is no reason to think she is enough of a threat to require such a drastic measure."

As more murmurs of agreement went through the hospital room, Endou's eyes looked around to see that he was now alone with his intentions.

"That just leaves one question," Kotaro said, addressing Homura more than the other doctors: "How exactly did you end up locked in a test room?"

Homura clicked her teeth ironically, letting her eyes drop to the side. "Why should I tell you?" she was mentally singing his praises. He may have just saved her life. No one in this room liked what Endou was doing, but Kotaro was the only one who had the guts to speak up. Now that the momentum was in her favor, she figured she might just get out of this with her sobriety intact after all.

"Fine then, don't tell me," Kotaro said, shrugging his shoulders and retreating back to his station by the door.

Homura let out a small laugh. "I suppose it doesn't matter anyway… not now, since my power is gone." She took in a deep breath, and stared at the ceiling. "He more or less has it all figured out. Ironic, huh? It took the rest of you three weeks and you still were not able to uncover what a lowly guard did in a single night. Pathetic, really. For how I lost my arm… That's the one part he did not get right...

"When I do what you think is teleporting, I am merely using my spacial distortion to change my own location. Well, I suppose teleporting is still a good enough term for it. But for me to displace myself through a solid object like a wall… it is much more difficult since I must dematerialize my body in order to do it. I run the risk of not being able to put myself back together… in this case, it was the shield itself which caused a problem. I had never actually dematerialized before, and I did not understand the material the shield was made of. I was not able to put it back together, and lost my arm along with it in the process… I _would_ say it's lucky that my arm is all I lost, if it were not for the fact I ended up here. Since I am here, however… I really wish I would have just died."

Homura looked over to Tsarina and narrowed her eyes. Those lies were just to appease the blue lipped phantom. She folded her arms over her chest and nodded her head, though her face still held a mean expression. Homura could tell this girl was not very smart, but at the same time she was not very stable either, and that meant Homura had to tread carefully. She could not challenge her and risk inspiring her to find some benign reason to go seek vengeance, and possibly end up hurting her friends. Homura would just bide her time and wait… _for now..._

Another doctor spoke up, "That still doesn't explain why you ended up in a test room."

"Isn't that obvious? I wanted to displace myself past the army and put myself outside the lab… I knew it was risky, but…" she coughed as she let out some weak laughter, "I never imagined I would mess it up this royally. Well... I'm useless to you now, so why don't you bastards just kill me?"

Tsarina smiled, " _Was that for me? Sorry, but killing you would have been easy. I let you live because you still have a purpose."_

"What about that gem?" Endou asked.

She supposed she had to give them something. The biggest problem is they were likely to take it away from her, which would result in her body reverting to the hollow shell it truly was. She would only tell them what they would soon find out for themselves anyway, but hopefully dissuade them from separating her from it. "I don't know what it is, but without it I will fall unconscious. Maybe you could consider it similar to a battery which powers my consciousness. So, I'd appreciate you not doing anything stupid like taking it off to another room to study it." There were more murmurs from the doctors, quietly discussing if such a claim could be possible.

"Well, we appreciate you finally being communicative with us, Miss Akemi," Dr. Endou said. God, she hated the sound of his voice. Now that there was a face to go with it she hated him even more.

"It doesn't matter. My powers are gone now anyway, so I don't need to worry about you people finding a way to weaponize it anymore."

"How conscientious of you."

Homura felt a retort on the tip of her tongue, but before she could let it out a gasp escaped her lips instead. She felt a pinch on her arm and her eyes darted down to it. She barely had time to react as Dr. Endou's thumb pushed down the tab and the grey liquid disappeared into her arm. She stared in shocked horror. She could already feel it, like fire in her veins, coursing up her arm and into her system. "No!" she screamed.

"The only problem is we have no way of knowing if all of that is made up," Endou said as he casually stepped around the table and brought the syringe back to the metal container. "Once this takes effect your claims will have much more credibility for us."

"You bastard!" she screamed, trying in vain to lash at him despite the restraints holding her down. "I swear to god I'll kill you!"

"Dr. Endou!" said another doctor, "Have you gone mad? What are you thinking!"

"I'm thinking of the safety of everyone in this lab. Don't worry, I will take responsibility for whatever happens as a result of this." He clicked the Galazadrine case closed again.

Homura thrashed against the bindings, she could hear Tsarina's mocking voice laughing in her head as a subtle dull drone started swarming around her and a warm feeling filled her body as the drug's effects started to set in. The lights in the room became incredibly bright. She started screaming.

"We have no idea how that could affect her!" the doctor persisted.

"As I said, I will take responsibility." He turned back Homura, who had abruptly stopped screaming. "When injected this way it takes effect quite quickly. So, how are you feeling? Homur-"

"She's biting her tongue!" another doctor yelled as several more of them started swarming around her.

 _You assholes,_ Homura thought menacingly as she continued to bite down with all her might. She could already taste the warm metallic liquid spilling from the fleshy muscle as gloved hands gripped her jaw and tried to force her mouth open. She wouldn't relent, resisting as much as possible, savoring these last few moments where she could truly be herself, and have her own free will.

Blood made it down her throat, and made her want to cough, but she kept her jaw tight, ignoring the pain. She could not block it out the way Sayaka Miki could, but it was still nothing for her. After all she had already been through, this pain was _nothing_.

Animistic sounds came from the back of her throat as one of the hands forced something thin and flat past her teeth, and then used it as if it were a crowbar to pry her jaw open, forcing her teeth to separate. Then another hand forced a cloth into her mouth. She continued screaming, though it became muffled from the cloth. "No anesthetic!" a doctor yelled at another. "It already might be too much for her!"

All of a sudden it hit her. All that rage, that burning in her chest, it melted away. A soft tingly feeling washed over every inch of her skin. The doctors rushing about all around her started to look like some chaotic scene on a TV, but she did not feel as though she were the center of it anymore. Instead, her focus came on those lights above her, and the soft rainbows of color emitting from them.

That buzzing sound… she remembered hating it, but could not say she hated it now, although it seemed louder than ever before, like a constant drone.

Her eyes looked around more, she saw Kotaro, the horrified and rageful expression in his eyes.

Then, the grinning face with those blue lips. That ghostly figure she should hate more than anything… but she honestly just did not care anymore. All Homura could think is how strange she looked, and how funny it was that her skin was white as paper. That truly was a very odd thing, wasn't it?

There were other ghosts in this room as well. Those ghosts would quickly duck back into their hiding places when Homura eyes would drift towards them. It was cute in a way, it was like they were playing hide-and-seek. They were so fast that she only got brief glimpses of their painted faces or gothic style clothing. They kept their laughter suppressed, but if Homura listened closely she could just barely make out their soft giggling. One of the taller ones, with blonde hair, held something red in her hand which Homura took note of before it spun away and hid behind a file cabinet. It was holding a _tomato_.

* * *

"So even if I do as you ask me, how do I know you will not just kill me anyway?"

Takashi shrugged, "I guess you don't, but you don't seem to have many alternatives, now do you?"

"Killing you will do us little good," said Aida in her roughly accented voice. "Assuming you are to do as we ask, there is no point to it."

"There are a few reasons I can think of. I know who you are, I could expose you, and as you said your new-found business partner wants me dead. How do I know you won't end my life as a show of good faith to him?"

"First, you cannot expose us," said Aida. "You do not know where you are and the names we have given to you are aliases. Having only first names will not be enough either way."

"And as for Endou?"

Aida smiled, "He has taken drastic measures to ensure his position in the lab. I think he understands his superiors are watching him quite closely. I think he wishes to capture another test subject in order to prove his worth, and maintain his position. Otherwise the gamble he has made by secretly taking in outsiders would make no sense."

"So the ends justify the means," said Kaiji. "That certainly does sound like him. It still does not answer my question where my own life is concerned, though."

"I think you can be valuable to us, if you show you can work with us and are not in a foolish moral dilemma regarding these girls. You could make yourself an asset, and I do not believe in throwing away assets."

"And what about _him_?" Kaiji asked, nodding over to Takashi.

"I'm touched," said Takashi with dry sarcasm.

"Takashi will do nothing without my approval. And as I say, I will not wish you dead for no reason."

"But how do I know that?" Kaiji asked.

"I suppose you don't," said Aida.

"And like I said," Takashi added, "You don't really have any other options."

If they had planned to just kill him all along, then why would they take such care to hide their identities and make sure he knew as little as possible? Well, they did divulge _some_ information, specifically regarding Endou, but it is not like Kaiji could prove it to anyone one way or the other. It would just be his word against Endou's, and these two did not seem to care _too_ much about Endou's well-being in the first place.

As Kaiji was thinking over this, his phone began to ring. It sat on the desk in front of him, and the screen brightened up with many different rainbow colors flashing across the screen - the same way it had when the girls called him before.

"Is that them?" Takashi asked, his unlit cigarette now hanging loosely in his mouth.

"It must be," Aida answered.

Takashi removed his gun from inside his coat, and gave Kaiji a very serious expression. "No funny business. Just do what we told you to, or it's lights out. Got it?"

Aida shushed him, then looked to Kaiji. "Answer it."

"I don't know what you expect me to-"

"Quit fucking around!" Takashi chided him through his teeth.

Kaiji moved his finger forward, not even sure how he was supposed to answer it like this, but cautiously touched the screen. All of a sudden the rainbow colors disappeared, and it returned to its normal screen, showing that a call was in progress with a little timer tracking the length: currently at only three seconds.

"Hello?" Kaiji asked, carefully.

From the phone they could hear some shuffling, soft indecipherable whispering, and then someone spoke. "Dr. Kaiji." It was a new voice.

"Yes. And who am I speaking to?"

"You can call me Melino. I suppose you can think of me as the unofficial leader to our group. I am glad you were able to answer your phone."

"I was wondering if I would be hearing from your group again," Kaiji said back, cautiously, "What is it you wanted?"

"First of all, Kyoko told us how you allowed her to escape when you easily had a chance to stop her. I would… like to thank you for that."

Kaiji didn't say anything. He couldn't; not when there is a possibility he would be setting her up to be captured again anyway.

He glanced over to the gun in Takashi's hand. What were the chances they would kill him no matter what he did? Right now the only bargaining chip he _really_ had was the fact that the girls _might_ trust him. After setting Kyoko up, the girls would no longer trust him and therefore he would be useless for the purposes of contacting them in the future. So, the only reason he was still alive, the only thing his captors needed from him, would be out of the window once they had what they wanted. What reason would they have for keeping him alive at that point?

"So," Melino continued, "Dr. Sakura's email has received a message from your lab. It is asking for her to come have another meeting with Homura."

"Yes…" Kaiji said, simply. Part of him thought to just scream " _don't go, it's a trap!"_ but he held back for now. Surely they would know better than to risk it, wouldn't they? Why would they trust him in the first place? Sure, he had let Kyoko go, but it would still be foolish for them to take such a risk. Unless Aida and Takashi's _running out of gas_ scenario was as credible as they seemed to think, and it really was urgent for Kyoko to meet with Homura.

Melino paused, perhaps taking in the tone of Kaiji's voice. Then she said, "We would like to send Kyoko in again. To check up on Homura. That is why we are contacting you. We need to know if anyone other than yourself knows our secret, and if not, we need to know if you would allow this meeting to happen without anything… _bad…_ happening to Kyoko."

Kaiji was silent. Just staring at the phone. Then he felt something press against the side of his head - it was cold. He looked up to see Takashi standing over him, pressing the gun against him with an icy look in his eyes. "I…"

He didn't want to die. As Aida had said, until truly faced with that situation it's easy to think of making such a sacrifice. He had been brave about Homura pointing a gun in his face back in the labyrinth because on some level he knew she would not actually do it. These people, on the other hand, were an entirely different story. He did not know what to expect from them.

Leaving his loved ones behind is what scared him the most; his son, his wife, his brother and his two nieces. His life, all his accomplishments and everything that he was would be reduced to nothing. Death truly was terrifying.

He didn't know these girls. He did not want harm to come to them, but was it really so honorable to trade himself for complete strangers? "I…" he gritted his teeth. "I… don't know."

There was silence. Aida and Takashi gave each other a glance.

"You sound conflicted, Dr. Kaiji," said Melino. "Listen, all we want is to help our friend. I don't know how you see us, but our powers don't make us not human. Without that, we are just like anyone else. All we want are happy lives and..." she paused and they could hear whispering. Then, "...Here, Madoka wants to talk to you."

"Hi… Mr. Kaiji?" She had such a sweet voice; small and delicate.

"Yes," Kaiji said, not realizing that his eyes began to water. He remembered that night when he had the first thing that could be considered a personal conversation with Homura. He was watching her through the screens, and she had been talking in her sleep, speaking Madoka's name. Remembering that, and now hearing Madoka's voice, it all suddenly felt so real.

"Um… I don't know what to say. I… I think you are a good person, and I'm sure you know what your lab is doing to Homura-chan is cruel. Especially now. I can't tell you how, but we know about her injury." Madoka's voice choked. She wanted to hold herself together but the sadness managed to break through. "She acts tough but she is just a normal girl like any of us! I know she is so scared and lonely and all we want is to have her back with us! What your lab is doing to her is just too cruel! Please! Please help us stop it! Please!"

Kaiji's head fell down and he buried his face in his hands. "There is nothing I can do." He said with a toneless voice. He felt like a terrible person, responding to her in such a way. Denying such a heartfelt request with such a passive tone, as if he did not care. He _did_ care though.

Then there was shuffling on the other side of the phone line, and the voice changed once again. "Hello? Dr. Kaiji?" Her tone was much rougher than when she would speak as Kay Sakura, but Kaiji still recognised her right away.

"Kyoko Sakura," Kaiji answered. "That's your true name."

"Yup, it's me. Listen, let me explain what's about to happen. I'm going to that meeting as Dr. Sakura, and I don't really give a damn what happens, but I would _really_ appreciate it if you didn't do anything that kept me from coming home. I mean, you would probably have to answer to Saya... ah… _Saki_ if anything _did_ happen to me. So how about not taking that chance and just being a good guy? Huh?"

Kaiji shook his head in disbelief at just how different Kyoko was when not playing her character of Dr. Kay. Even in the middle of this terrible situation, he could not help but stop and give her some credit for just how good of an actress she had been over this last week. It seemed Takashi and Aida could also not help raising an eyebrow at each other.

"Saki…" Kaiji repeated the name. He remembered Saki. She had dubbed herself as a murderer and claimed _Kay_ was the only thing that kept her from going over the edge again.

"She's a good girl," Kyoko continued, "she just has a bad habit of going a little psycho on occasion. Trust me, you definitely do _not_ want to be on her radar when she gets like that, I know from experience. Just sayin'. That's not why I'm talking to you though, there is something else I want to know." Her voice suddenly lost that smug playfulness and became much more serious. "Homura's arm. What happened to it?"

"I don't know," Kaiji answered. It truly was a mystery for them as well.

"Okay... do you know what a witch is?" Kyoko asked.

"Yes, that is how Homura referred to the creature that attacked our lab."

"Good, then do you know if Homura lost her arm during the fight with that thing, or did it happen some time _after_ she defeated it?"

"After," Kaiji answered right away. "She had a rather bad injury on her shoulder, as well as several other smaller injuries from the fight, but she was not missing her arm until we found her in a test room later."

"How did she end up in a test room?"

"I do not know that either. I assumed she teleported there for some reason. However, we have never seen her teleport through walls before, so my best guess is that she never tried because it is dangerous for her. I wondered if her attempt to teleport through a wall could have had something to do with her missing arm?"

Kyoko was quiet for a while, seeming to think things over. "So after defeating the witch. What happened directly after that?"

"Well… while the lab was under attack all its surroundings had changed. Homura referred to it as a _labyrinth_. When she defeated the witch, the labyrinth disappeared and everything returned to normal." Kaiji half-mindedly took notice of a downcast look in Aida's eyes, and he further noticed how Takashi reached a hand to her shoulder, as if to comfort her. Kaiji kept the majority of his focus on Kyoko, though. "We ended up in the elevator room and our guards attempted to detain her, but failed. Then she walked into the elevator and disappeared after the doors closed."

"She had her arm while she was in the elevator?" Kyoko asked.

"Yes."

"And then you later found her in a test room. That is when you first saw her without her arm?"

"Yes, exactly."

Kyoko once again paused for a long period of time, seeming to think something over. "I see. Well anyway, like I said I need to go to that meeting with Homura. Once again, I would really appreciate you not saying anything to anyone."

Kaiji closed his eyes, swallowed hard, then in a dull cryptic voice he said. "Wait." Aida and Takashi both stirred, clearly not liking his tone. "What you are asking me to do. I can't promise anything."

"Hm, is that right?" Kyoko asked.

"Yes. Therefore I think it would be better that you did _not_ come to the lab."

Takashi raised his gun into Kaiji's point of view. He put up a finger and mouthed the words: " _Last Chance."_

"Well, I certainly appreciate that, Dr. Kaiji."

 _This is it,_ he thought, _I'm dead_. Not that he had much of a chance either way. The reasoning he finally came to is that his only value to the kidnappers is that the girls they wanted to capture trusted him. By warning Kyoko against going into the lab but revealing nothing beyond that he could still maintain their trust and have some value to play against his kidnappers. He did not know how much good it would be, but it's all he had. Besides, if he was going to die either way, at least he could keep his moral conscious intact.

Then Kyoko said, "So, guess I may be seeing you in the lab tonight. Huh?"

"What?" Kaiji asked, picking his head back up. Did she not understand what he just said?

"You know, I really shouldn't trust you, but for some reason I think I do."

"Wait! I said _not_ to go to the lab!" Kaiji shouted, " _Don't_ go!"

"Good point there," Kyoko laughed, as if responding to a completely different conversation. "But I guess we can just take our chances on that one, eh?"

"What are you talking about?" Kaiji said, then it hit him. She was acting to deceive her friends… but why would she do that?

"Yeah, I know. It's hard to explain, but Homura really does need to see me tonight. I appreciate that you are working with me on this. Guess you are not such a bad guy after all."

Was she doing this because she thought only he knew? He glanced over to the gun in Takashi's hand and saw the angry downward curve of his captors eyebrows. Well, he had already come this far. There was no holding back now. He had to make sure she fully understood the situation. "Kyoko Sakura. I don't know what you are plotting but understand this: they know who you are. It's a trap. Understand? If you go into that lab, you will _not_ be able to leave!"

"Okay, Dr. Kaiji. Goodbye for now." and with that the call abruptly ended.

Kaiji just stared at the phone with his mouth partially hanging open.

Aida instantly went over to the phone and unplugged her device from it and then reattached it to her computer with another cord.

Takashi looked over to Aida. "So, how many do you think are there?"

"It is hard to say for sure," she said as she sat down at the computer chair and started typing. "We know of Kyoko Sakura, but this Melino and Saki, we have no direct proof they truly are puella magi yet, although it is safe to say at least one is. My instinct tells me they both are, however. If the magical hacker is not one of them then this is a possibility of four total. As for Madoka Kaname, Endou seemed sure there is nothing special about her. The lab had already looked into her."

Takashi nodded and waved his gun in Kaiji's direction. "So what are we doing with this guy? Lights out or what?"

"No…" Aida spoke slowly, mulling it over. "I would say he acted perfectly, wouldn't you? Though he did not do as we asked, perhaps it worked even greater in our favor. If Kyoko really does come, that is."

Kaiji head lifted up at that. _Worked even greater in their favor._ What did she mean?

"Turns out it wouldn't have mattered what he said anyway, huh? So, we looking good on that thing?" Takashi asked as Aida clicked around on her computer some more.

"Yes, I see no alteration of data inside my proxy nor is there any more direct signs of interference. I would say we are safe."

"And that _other_ thing?" Takashi asked.

Aida smiled as her finger slammed down on the enter key and a map of Mitakihara City popped up. There was a distinct red dot on it. "As I said, our Magical Hacker is good and clever, but she is also arrogant. This has worked against her."

Takashi read the coordinates from the screen. "Sure you aren't underestimating her?"

"I suppose we'll find out, but I have a good feeling about this."

Kaiji's eyes widened, looking between the two of them. "What are you talking about?" He demanded as he stood up from his seat.

Takashi looked over to him with a bored look on his face at first, but then moved suddenly. With a quick motion he lifted his knee and slammed it into the center of Kaiji's stomach, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to fall back into his chair. "Take a seat, will you?" Takashi said, "Things may have worked out, but I'm still a sore loser when it comes to people calling my bluffs." He sighed and waved his gun around a bit. "It makes me look bad. Don't let yourself get too cocky though, or it really might not work out for you next time."

Kaiji coughed, trying to regain himself.

"Takashi, please do not do that again," said Aida, as she finished with the computer. She then turned to face Kaiji. "We lied about our true intention of having you talk to the Puella Magi. Tricking Kyoko into coming back to the lab is a nice bonus, but not our main goal. I have also lied about the function of this device I attached to your phone."

" _What?"_ Kaiji managed to croak out through his loss of breath.

"While it is true this device would hide our location, it served another purpose: to find _theirs_. To do this discretely requires time, however, and we needed them to stay on the phone long enough to accomplish it. That is the only _true_ reason we have bothered with this."

Kaiji felt his heart sink as he looked to the computer screen, and the solid red dot on the map. "No…"

Takashi grinned, "We help Endou find some more test subjects, and he gets us in on the research. That's what our partnership was all about. It was a bigger risk from his side of things, but looks like it's going to be worth the gamble for the crazy bastard."

"What if he is just using you!" Kaiji shouted out. "Once he gets what he wants he will have no interest in..." Kaiji flinched as Takashi's foot lifted up to kick him again. Takashi stopped before doing it though, merely using it as a threat.

"Then we unload the classified information he leaked to us and help land his ass in jail. Giving us something we could hold against him was a condition of our partnership." Takashi grinned as he put his foot back down and looked over to Aida.

"We also have even more information gathered in our research of Puella Magi we can share with him," Aida explained. "Once we are allowed in the lab and he discloses everything he has, we will disclose everything we know as well. In addition we will be let in on the _testing_ of the new subjects."

Takashi laughed as he fished a lighter from his pocket and lit the cigarette that had been hanging from his mouth. "Well, let's hope it really does work out. We just got the coordinates. The rest is up to our _partner_."

"Damn it," Kaiji cursed, hoping the girls would be prepared for whatever was coming their way.

* * *

Junko sat at her place in the boardroom, anxiously tapping her foot as Old Baldy from the accounting department and an executive from production debated the pros and cons of a certain funding cut. It became annoying when they started going over the same points they already had without actually making any progress.

Junko had already given her own presentation for the day, which she had gone through as quickly as possible while still being professional, and now just wanted this to be over so she could leave. Madoka still had not responded to her, so she was going to go try to track her down as soon as she could get out of this meeting.

"I'm telling you, cuts on the production will only lead to disaster," shouted the head of the production board. "Find some other way to get your books balanced!"

"You are overfunded as it is," _Old Baldy from accounting_ quipped back. "Starting with cuts in this area makes the most sense!"

It was clear they would be here all night, and no one else at the long wooden table seemed like they planned to do anything about it so she finally decided to take things into her own hands. "Gentlemen," Junko said as she stood. "I think this current line of discussion is missing the real root of the problem. The cuts being suggested are merely an attempt to shovel water out of the haul, rather than finding and plugging up the actual leaks." She rolled her neck, her voice becoming dark and sinister. "We cut this today, that tomorrow, but in the end it's a failure to optimize which has our growth on a steady decline."

This silenced the two men who were bickering, and the big cheese at the head of the table leaned forward, intrigued to follow her line of reasoning. "Well then what would you suggest? Kaname?"

Junko let a devilish grin come over her face as her posture straightened. Her eyes came alive with fire as she raised a fist and declared: "We initiate a full staff review campaign!"

Her suggestion instantly drained what little enthusiasm there was in the room, setting a dark aura over the entire table, and it seemed even the sky beyond the window overlooking the cityscape darkened. This affected all but the big cheese at the head of the table, who leaned back in his chair and seemed to start thinking it over.

Old Baldy cleared his throat nervously, "W-well, it has been a long day. Maybe we should wrap this up for now?"

"Yes, I agree," said the production executive. "It is late and we are all tired. Lets pick up again next week, shall we?"

Just about everyone else at the meeting seemed in agreement with this prospect, as hushed chatter spread through the boardroom and everyone started gathering up their papers and folders.

 _Too easy,_ Junko thought with a grin.

She quickly went back to her office to gather her things, doing her best to politely brush off small talk with her fellow co-workers as she passed them in the halls. She made it back to the elevator and when it opened it was already occupied by an old familiar face.

The suited man stepped to the side to make room for her, "Nice work in there," he said with a good hearted grin.

Junko gave him a nod as she entered the elevator. "It was nothing." She glanced down to the controls and saw the button for the first floor lobby was already highlighted.

"So what's going on? Family problems?"

"Saw right through it, huh?" Junko said back, with a somewhat dry tone.

"Sure, well figured it had to be something big to risk another review."

His name was Sato and they had been in the same class together back in highschool. He had actually ask her out once before back then, but she had turned him down. They never had much of a relationship beyond that, and it was purely coincidental that they ended up working for the same corporation in their adult life.

"Well, I really just need to go pick up my daughter," Junko said, deciding not to get into details with him. "Either way, I thought it would be a nice gesture to spare the boardroom from more bickering from the accounting department."

"It's true those guys don't know when to just cash their chips in, but you may have set off a second crusade. Things got pretty nasty last time the review board was given teeth, you know."

Junko smirked, "Well, I have nothing to worry. How about you?"

"Of course not."

"As I recall, the last time staff reviews were simply rumored, our profitability had an uptick of about five percent. So it would not be an altogether bad thing."

"Well that's also true. Doesn't make for a very calm work environment, though."

"Maybe," Junko half-agreed.

There was not much more for them to talk about so they stayed mostly quiet the rest of the way down. In the corporate world when it came to hotshots like him, Junko learned it was best to keep a friendly, but cool distance. If she knew anything about Japanese business men, it's that if you give them an inch they will try to take a mile. Other woman in her field sometimes used their gender to an advantage, but Junko herself tended to know how to work the corporate ladder without stooping to those methods. In fact, she had witnessed that it usually doesn't work out as well in the long run. The good old fashioned method of having a strong work ethic and indomitable will were the true keys to surviving the corporate jungle.

She went to her car in the reserved parking spot right out front, and considered trying Madoka's cell phone one last time. With her thumb over the call button, she stop and thought for a moment, then placed the phone into a holster on the dashboard without making the call. She had already tried several times throughout the day, her messages ranging from concern to scolding.

Truth is, she was mostly concerned at this point. Madoka had not quite been herself over the last few months, chock it up to being the troubled teen years _maybe_ , but blatantly disrespecting the rules like this was so unlike Madoka.

As soon as she found Madoka, if there was not a good explanation for this, she was really going to lay the hammer down hard this time.

She briefly reflected on a conversation she had with Madoka a couple of months ago, and the advice she had given her. Something about doing the wrong thing every once in awhile. Junko sighed. If she could have seen into the future she thought maybe she would have been a bit more careful with that bit of advice. It was vaguely humorous to find that she preferred the Madoka who never did a single thing wrong after all.

Homura lived in the residential part of the inner city, which was not too hard to get to from her own house, but getting there from her work did not exactly have a clean route, so she ended up traveling through the heart of the city and catching a good bit of the late afternoon traffic.

She eventually made it there though, and parked her car in front of the droll and poorly decorated apartment complex in which Homura lived. Junko remembered the first time she had come here to pick Madoka up, and she had played with the idea of simply inviting Homura to come live with them. This area of town wasn't too bad, but still not the greatest place for a teenage girl to be living by herself.

It's was to Junko's understanding that Homura had a social worker who would occasionally check up on her, and she was paid an allowance by the government which is how she was able to afford living here. Other than that, though, she was on her own.

As far as being dealt a poor hand went, from what Junko knew about Homura's history, she had been dealt a real bust. Her mother had passed away long ago in an accident. Her father was an apparent deadbeat who dropped off the face of the planet, and Homura therefore had grown up in a orphanage in Tokyo. If all that was not bad enough, she had a heart condition which apparently got bad enough to hospitalize her, which is how she ended up in Mitakihara. She needed special treatment which the hospitals in Tokyo could not provide for the extended period of time she required.

Somehow, Homura managed to stay strong and survive through all of that, and Junko had a great deal of admiration for her. Though, Junko also saw what she knew for sure her daughter could see as well.

It would not be quite right to say that Homura's strength was simply a mask she would put on. She was strong, but it was a very guarded type of strength. It's more that whatever weakness _was_ inside her she kept hidden away, and tried not to let anyone see it.

Junko went through the front door of the apartment building which put her in a poorly lit hallway. She walked down it a while, catching a whiff of stale cigarette smoke as she passed one of rooms, then took a turn up a staircase and went up to the third floor. Homura's room was three doors down, with 'Akemi' printed just above the peephole. Junko raised her hand to knock, then noticed the mailbox directly next to it was absolutely stuffed with mail.

Her hand lowered as she looked at it, finding herself becoming concerned once again. If Homura truly had made it back today, then the mailbox would have been emptied. It looked like it currently had several _weeks_ worth stuffed inside.

Junko frowned, then tried knocking. She listened, did not hear anything, and then knocked again. She reached for the doorknob, noticed the wood directly next to the knob was darker than the rest, then she tried to turn it. No good. She found herself staring at that spot near the door for a while, upon closer inspection she realized that it seemed there was some damage there which was repaired and then repainted to cover it up.

She sighed and put her back against the door as she thought. Maybe Madoka left the house early to go meet Homura at the train station? Then they simply stayed out in the town together all day? The question is, why would Madoka just take off without saying anything to them? Well, she was suppose to be grounded. Maybe she thought they wouldn't let her out if she asked?

Junko took out her phone and looked at the screen, thinking about trying to call Madoka once again. Maybe Madoka had dropped her phone at some point during the day, and that's why she had not been answering? She tried to keep herself calm, and tell herself that everything was fine and there really was no reason to be getting worried like this. Her gut instinct was telling her otherwise though.

Madoka had said Homura was in trouble, but she would not elaborate. She did say that Homura was _ok now,_ though.

"Madoka, where are you?" She muttered to herself.

Then she heard a voice from down the hall. "Excuse me? Can I help you?"

Junko looked up, and saw an old woman coming from the staircase. Junko took note of a security camera in the corner of the hall which she had not noticed before. She gave the woman a friendly smile as she walked towards her.

"Sorry," Junko said, "I'm an acquaintance of the girl who lives here. I was trying to get in contact with her. Um, would you happen to be the landlord?"

"I am," the old woman said. Her voice was rather rough. The skin of her cheeks was loose, it hung off of her in a way that forced her wrinkled mouth down into a frown. "You know Akemi? Are you family?"

"Well, I think it would be fair to say I'm _like_ family to her. She is very close with my daughter and spends a lot of time at our home. That is, until she disappeared a month ago."

"I see," the old woman said, glancing over to the door, her face falling into an even deeper frown. "So you do not know what happened to her either, then?"

"I don't… Is her rent paid?" Junko asked, "If not..."

"No, it's been paid. Not by her, though. There is a social worker who would often come to visit her. She has been in contact with me ever since the night Akemi disappeared." The old woman walked over to the door, and looked down at the handle, investigating the freshly painted spot Junko had taken notice of. "I suppose no one told you about what happened that night."

The tone of the old woman's voice had Junko rather concerned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I really do hate to worry you, but Homura Akemi did not just run off one day. Something happened to her."

"Something happened to her? What do you mean?" Her concern suddenly reaching new heights, not liking the way this sounded at all.

"Well, by the time the social worker had come for a visit, Homura had already been gone for a couple days. I let her in, and the entire room was… well…"

Junko felt her pulse quicken. "Do you think you could let me inside?" She asked, "I suppose you have the key, don't you?"

The woman looked at her for a moment and asked, "So you say you are like family to her?"

Junko nodded, "Yes, actually I imagine we are the closest thing to family she has got."

"Well then, I suppose it's alright." The woman reached into her pocket. She produce a key and then stood to the side after unlocking the door, and allowed Junko to go in first.

Junko gasped as she entered and looked around. The room was completely trashed. The couch was turned over on it's side, pictures pulled from the walls, and papers were scattered around Homura's school bag. In the back corner of the living room there should have been computer station. The monitor was still there, but the tower was missing.

Junko slowly walked through the apartment. In the kitchen all the drawers were pulled out with silverware and plates all over the floor. Homura's bedroom was the same way, with all of her clothes scattered around and everything that had been inside the closet messily thrown out of it.

"When the social worker came looking for her, this is how the apartment was," said the old woman. "It seems as though someone was looking for something, doesn't it?"

Junko couldn't respond. She was too shocked. Her eye caught a piece of paper on the night stand by Homura's bed. She walked over to it, and unfolded it. It was a note.

 _Homura-chan,_

 _If you see this please call me right away! We are all really worried about you!_

The note was unsigned, but Junko recognised her daughter's handwriting. The fact that the note was still there at all was proof that Homura had never seen it. It was also proof that Madoka had seen Homura's apartment like this, but then lied about Homura being ok. Why would she do that? What did she know?

"Were the police called?" Junko asked the old woman who followed her into the bedroom.

"Of course we called the police. They came in and looked around for a while, asked some questions to some other residents. No one saw a thing, though some of her immediate neighbors reported hearing some kind of commotion. That's all I know. If you want more information on the investigation I imagine the social worker I mentioned before can tell you who to call."

"Do you have her number?" Junko asked.

"Yes, come on down to my office. I have her business card down there."

Junko took a last look around the apartment, hoping to find some clue to what had happened, but not seeing anything that stood out. She had only been here a couple of times and not for very long, so she could not say what else might have been missing other than the computer tower. Junko did not know what to think, but somehow she knew there was more to this than it being a robbery gone wrong.

She followed the old woman back to her office on the first floor. On the way she pointed out the security camera.

"We did not have that camera at the time," the woman explained. "We had it installed after that night, though."

Junko retrieved the social workers business card from the woman's office, thanked her, then went back to her car.

Madoka claimed to have been in contact with Homura these last weeks. Or at least, she implied that she had been. Then there were those pictures that Homura had drawn and sent to her. Madoka definitely knew something about what was going on here, but Junko could not imagine what it could be, or why Madoka would not tell her about it.

She quickly dialed the number on the business card. Once she found Madoka she would demand answers, and not take any of Madoka's side stepping. She did not care how aggressive she had to be about this. For now though, she only had this one lead, and hopefully the social worker had more information than the landlady.

After listening to the phone ring for a moment, a woman answered. "Fuchida Kyomi," the voice said, simply.

"Yes, hello. My name is Junko Kaname, I'm an acquaintance of Homura Akemi and-"

"Homura?" Fuchida reacted instantly to her name. "Do you know where she is?"

"No," Junko responded, "That's why I'm calling you. I was just at her apartment trying to track her down, and my own daughter as well, and I received your business card from the land lady. I was hoping you might have some information on where Homura has been this last month."

Fuchida paused, then asked, "I'm sorry, but what exactly is your acquaintance with Homura?"

"She is good friends with my daughter," Junko explained, then thought it over for a moment and decided to be more specific. "They've been dating since April. Homura has spent a lot of time at my home since then. That is, until she abruptly stopped coming over nearly a month ago. Please, if there is anything you can tell me…"

There was a long silence before Fuchida managed to give an answer. When she did, Junko gasped at having her fear from when she witnessed the condition of Homura's apartment repeated back to her. "I think she's been kidnapped."

* * *

Kyoko was all set in her Dr. Sakura outfit, but did not bother with enchanting her physical appearance just yet. She stood by the window, cautiously watching the detective who was still outside their apartment. She tilted away from the window, and looked out of the computer room door, probably trying to get a grasp for if he would be able to catch her making an escape from the balcony.

Leiko sat crossed legged on the floor, leaning her head down inside her opened computer tower and fiddling around with a screw driver. Every now and then a rainbow spark would be emitted from inside it, but she mostly worked in silence. Her smashed computer monitor was laid off to the side, and a much smaller one retrieved from Mami's junk closet, took its place atop the desk.

Mami watched her for a while, and occasionally leaned down to peek inside at what Leiko was doing. She knew next to nothing about computers herself, and at best could only get a vague impression of what Leiko was doing. It kind of reminded her of when she once watched her father doing some work on their family car. She was very little then, and sat atop a stool trying her best to look inside the hood as he worked; not understanding a thing she was seeing but still finding it strangely fascinating to watch.

She sometimes wondered. Had the car accident not occurred that day all those years ago, how might her life be different now? Or at least, if she had managed to save the lives of her parents when she made that wish…

Why was she thinking about it now?

At least she managed to find a new family, she thought as she looked over the room. Kyoko still stood by the window, and Madoka and Sayaka sat next to each other on the loveseat. There was a rather dark atmosphere among everyone, which was only natural given the situation. _Kyoko,_ Mami thought as she looked back towards her old Kohai, _I really hope you end up being ok._

She remembered her thoughts about Homura from earlier today, once again feeling terribly guilty over it. It was just a moment of weakness, she told herself. She might not have the best relationship with Homura, but Homura was still a part of this family. Once all of this was brought to an end, and they had her back, things would be good again. But… what if she lost even more of her friends instead?

Leiko suddenly straightened up, taking her head out of the computer and putting her screw driver to the side. She rolled her neck around and stretched her arms out; cracking her joints.

"All set?" Kyoko asked, giving her a quick glance before rolling up the sleeve of her labcoat and using a finger to pull down the blinds and peak out..

"Yeah. _All set,_ " said Leiko with a bit of dry irritation. Apparently she had not completely gotten over the confrontation with Kyoko earlier today. Not that she and Kyoko ever got along very well in the first place. Mami still thought the two of them cared for eachother though, just as everyone in the room. Leiko never outwardly showed much towards any of them, but it was clear that there was much more below the surface of this girl. If anything, Madoka at least had managed to prove that.

Sayaka looked at Madoka, gave her a reassuring nod, then stood. "Kyoko... are you sure it isn't a trap?"

Kyoko shrugged, "Could be."

That caused Sayaka to grit her teeth and raise her voice. "What the hell! Are you trying to make me worry even more?!"

"Would you rather I just lied to you?" Mami took note of the way Kyoko looked away from Sayaka as she said that. Mami knew her old Kohai enough to know she was hiding something, or at least was more worried than she was letting on.

"Well… do you think that doctor Kaiji was sincere? I mean, how was his voice when he was speaking to you? Did it sound like he was being honest about letting you in and not saying anything about who you are?"

"Dunno." Kyoko turned away from the window, walked over to Sayaka and put her hands on her shoulders. "If anything _does_ happen though, keep cool. Doing something stupid and getting yourself hurt will only make things worse."

Sayaka normally would have quipped back at that, but the serious expression in Kyoko's eyes subdued her. Then Kyoko smiled, "We all got our jobs to do. You need to go collect some GriefSeeds. We'll need all the magic we can get," she glanced over to Mami. "Right Mami?" Mami nodded. She then looked to Madoka, "And what I said to Sayaka applies to you as well. If anything bad _does_ happen, no being stupid. Ok?"

"I-I know," said Madoka. "Um, I was wondering... since Homura defeated a witch in the lab, what happened to the GriefSeed it should have dropped?"

"Rehatched witches don't drop GriefSeeds," Kyoko explained, "At least... I have never seen it happen. It might depend on if the witch managed to gain enough energy from its victims or not, though."

"You seem pretty sure about that," said Sayaka, "How did you…" She trailed off when she saw the guilty look on Kyoko's face.

With a sigh Kyoko eventually said: "There are a lot of things about the way my life use to be that I am not proud of." She left it at that, and no one questioned her on it further.

Leiko pushed the computer tower as close to the desk as she could, and reattached the necessary cords, but left it open. "Ok the mods are done, I'm all ready to get started." She held a hand out to Mami. "Just need that last thing."

"Right," Mami said, then held her SoulGem to her chest and began to transform.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **It has been a little while since the last update. Sorry to those who have been left waiting. The muses tend to be a fickle bunch, and they were really fighting me whenever I tried to write for TSO for a while. I guess you would call that writer's block. Rather than force it though, I moved on to poking at some of my other writing projects including Reverse Blue, Perfect Crime, and an original story which doesn't have anything released publicly yet. Stepping away from TSO for a little while feels like it was helpful for me, as I was able to come look at it with a fresh mind again and now feel much better about it.**

 **Anyway, that's enough blogging out of me for now. I will just give a reminder that I am on Twitter and if you want info on when new chapters will be releasing that is where to look. I have a "weekly update" tweet I put out every thursday, so that's the best time to check. At /Atomyst_Fics or find a direct link in my profile.**

 **And a thank you to all reviewers and followers! Every one of those helps support the story so I really do appreciate those who take a few minutes to leave one :)**

 **-Atomyst**


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